Then to our amazement, the mine stood up in the water, the top part of it still showing! We had not realized how shallow the water was and how little water was under our boat where we let it go. With the whole boat leaning over, we gently lowered it back into the sea and carefully cut through the rope loop, releasing it from our vessel. We had heard of boats disappearing along our coastline but never knew what had happened to them. Once we cut the mine out of our net, we had to get it over the side again without incident, a delicate task since it could explode. The chains in front of our net had dragged it out from the mud in one of our familiar fishing grounds, a place we fished countless times. It was made of stainless steel and looked brand new.

With a heavy clunk, we rested the mine on the deck. Designed to blow ships entirely in half by the upward blast, it was now swinging to and fro just inches above our deck as the waves rolled the boat. When the end of the net came to the surface, there was the biggest of the Second World War German Magnetic mines, a sizeable 12-foot-long mine still in good condition with 1500 pounds of high explosive. Our fishing boat, the Why Worry, leaned heavily over as she creaked and groaned with the derrick and mast taking the strain. Inch by inch, we heaved up the net with our two-ton winch straining at the weight. The net we were towing along the seabed caught on something substantial.

To introduce our topic, I would like to start with one of my fishing stories from my younger days as a commercial fisherman with my father outside the east coast port of Harwich, Essex, England.

Chip ingram bible study