No luck finding missing ship that sunk in River Ouse at Wiggenhall St Germans despite King’s Lynn Conservancy Board spending up to £50k on retrieval

An authority says it has acted “beyond what its responsibilities are” after a 32-foot-long boat went missing at the bottom of a river.

West Norfolk mayor Andy Bullen, who is also the chair of the Lynn Conservancy Board (KLCB), which navigates and tows ships in the area, clarified that it has gone “above and beyond” to locate the vessel, which vanished in the River Ouse at St Germans.

The cruiser left Lynn sometime at the beginning of last month to travel to Boston, in Lincolnshire. However, it ran out of fuel in the middle of The Wash.

Hunstanton RNLI was sent to retrieve the boat on April 30, and it was towed to the pontoons on Lynn’s South Quay.

Sometime later, the owners decided to continue their trip using inland waterways instead, but ran into more trouble at St Germans.

“They moored the vessel and left it there,” Mr Bullen told the Lynn News.

The KLCB made arrangements for a contractor to fetch the ship before it disappeared, but by the time they got there, it had already sunk.

It is unclear why the ship was abandoned in the first place, but Mr Bullen speculated that it “possibly ran out of fuel again”.

Since its disappearance, authorities have been unable to locate it, which prompted the KLCB to issue a warning to those using the waterways.

“It is believed that the sunken vessel has shifted with the tidal flow,” the notice read.

Surveys were carried out for the next four days, and have been continuing once a week since then, paid for by the KLCB - but so far, no luck.

“We arranged for a mobile barge and divers to come and retrieve the vessel, which was the greatest expense to the board, possibly up to £50,000,” Mr Bullen added.

Currents may mean that it has drifted further up or downstream, but the KLBC now believes the boat has settled within a deep pocket somewhere in the river.

“We advise all mariners that this is deemed to be a potential danger to navigation and that the river Great Ouse should be navigated with extreme caution,” the authority said.

“We also recommend navigating with a tidal height of at least five metres at all times.”

Mr Bullen added that the vessel is lying lower than three metres in depth and that this leaves a safety margin of at least one metre.

“With a tidal height of five metres, the lowest bridge height is 9.54 metres, which gives all vessels navigating at a five-metre water depth 4.54m of air draught to ensure bridge clearance,” he said.

“All of the above calculations give sufficient water depth and air draft for the passage of all craft.”

He also reminded the public that Lynn is “very fortunate to have such a professionally-run organisation such as the conservancy board”, which is looking after the safety of those in the water.