Fishermen worked for three days to salvage a trawler found upside down and under water on the Hunter River at Raymond Terrace earlier this month.
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“The mooring lines were let off and we found it like that on Wednesday [April 12],” one fisherman told Fairfax Media.
The mooring lines were let off and we found it like that. It's not the first time something like this has happened.
- Fisherman
“It’s not the first time something like this has happened.”
The fisherman, who wished to remain nameless fearing more foul play, said the boat was left to the mercy of the tides once the lines were cast off.
From the wharf it went upstream – a distance of about 400 metres – where it came to rest on the rocks behind the Aldi supermarket.
When the tide went out the boat has tipped over and it remained there – upside down – until Easter Saturday when fisherman managed to right it and re-float it.
The trawler owner has lost more than $3000 in equipment including cookers, cooking baskets and ice boxes.
Additionally it’s broken three planks in the hull that will require it to be removed from the water and fixed, ending the trawler operator’s season.