Craig Coppock

So I was back home from university in London, hoping to spend some time at the beach or Relaxing at home, but my father had different ideas.

His deckhand was on holiday, so he told me that I'd be assisting him on board the boat.

We used to leave at around 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning. We'd stop, pick up some newspapers, head down to the boat, and then we'd be out fishing all day until dark. The day started off beautifully, very sunny day, very little wind. Those perfect days on the water where you can see your reflection in the sea.

The kind of days that make you glad you're working on a boat as opposed to the horrible ones where weather is absolutely terrible and you're questioning your life decisions.

Other fishing boats tended to avoid it due to the nature of the seabed, which was rocky and treacherous for nets.

We brought the net up from the bottom, which involves bringing the cod end on board. The cod end is the very end of the net where all the fish accumulate. Then there's a rope to open it up and that will drop all the fish on the deck. But as soon as we got the cod end up in the air to bring it over the rail of the fishing boat, you could immediately smell something was dead.

I'd had the occasional dead seal in the fishing net, but this didn't smell like that. I'd never seen or smelt a dead body, but I think something instinctively inside of us knows when you're in that situation. I opened up the cod end, dropped the catch onto the deck, and immediately you could see the figure of a man lying on the deck in between the fish that we'd caught.

The body was barely touched. Usually when anything dies in the ocean, it ends up on the seabed, and then crabs and lobsters and little sharks and fish will be eating it.

And honestly, it just looked like a really bad prop from a horror movie, so much so that it was unbelievable.

The body had a tattoo on its hand. It was really difficult to tell what the tattoo was. And we noticed quite soon that the guy was wearing a Rolex watch.

My father knew everything. that immediately the catch would have to be condemned. So all the fish that had been caught with the body would have to just be kicked over the side, dead. By condemning the catch, we were condemning ourselves to going home without a paycheck for that day.

In the UK, If you find a dead body and no relations can be found, then after 13 weeks you become liable for the burial or disposal of that body. The person who found them has to deal with the funeral arrangements cost.

Then myself and my dad had a discussion and my dad felt strongly that if one of us had gone missing at sea, then my mother would definitely prefer to know we were dead than always be wondering what happened, et cetera. So we came to that conclusion that the right thing to do would be to report this so that the dead person's loved ones could get some sort of closure.

So there was quite a crowd on the quayside as we came alongside. And then we just received instructions to wait for a certain police officer to come down to the boat.

The pockets had obviously been turned out, so I asked myself and my father if we'd taken the guy's wallet.

Please have that. Ability to make you feel guilty, suddenly being questioned about grave robbing or stealing things from dead bodies, it wasn't much fun at all.

We said if we were going to take his wallet, we'd probably have his Rolex watch as well.

He picked up the guy's arm. took the watch off his wrist and said, it's not a real Rolex because it's not working. At which point it started to tick again because it was a kinetic watch.

The watch I was wearing on that day was engraved with my name and birthday on the back, which was given to me as a gift. I said, it might be worth checking the back of the watch for an engraving. The officer shot Craig a look. And he said, your problem is you've been watching too much effing Inspector Morse. It was more than dismissed.

He made me feel terrible, like watching too much fucking Inspector Morse. I was like, I'm not going to say anything else.

The local pastor or vicar said, came down to the boat, offered us some counselling. We suggested that if he gave us £20, we would go and self-counsel in the buller's arms, which was just across the road from the boat, but he wasn't keen on that course of action. So I just went for a pint with my dad, just to rehash what had happened. I think he was just checking I was okay.

And then, yeah, we went home and told everything to mother.

The local pastor or vicar said, came down to the boat, offered us some counselling. We suggested that if he gave us £20, we would go and self-counsel in the bull's arms, which was just across the road from the boat. But he wasn't keen on that course of action. So I just went for a pint with my dad just to rehash what had happened. I think he was just checking I was OK.

And then, yeah, we went home and told everything to mother.

So I was back home from university in London, hoping to spend some time at the beach or relaxing at home, but my father had different ideas.

His deckhand was on holiday, so he told me that I'd be assisting him on board the boat.

We used to leave at around 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning. We'd stop, pick up some newspapers, head down to the boat, and then we'd be out fishing all day until dark. Day started off beautifully, very sunny day, very little wind. Those perfect days on the water where you can see your reflection in the sea.

The kind of days that make you glad you're working on a boat as opposed to the horrible ones where weather is absolutely terrible and you're questioning your life decisions.

It's fair to say on the first two tows, we weren't catching enough fish to cover expenses.

Other fishing boats tended to avoid it due to the nature of the seabed, which is rocky and treacherous for nets.

We brought the net up from the bottom, which involves bringing the cod end on board. The cod end is the very end of the net where all the fish accumulate. Then there's a rope to open it up and that will drop all the fish on the deck. But as soon as we got the cod end up in the air to bring it over the rail of the fishing boat, you could immediately smell something was dead.

I'd had the occasional dead seal in the fishing net, but this didn't smell like that. I'd never seen or smelt a dead body, but I think something instinctively inside of us knows when you're in that situation. I opened up the cod end, dropped the catch onto the deck, and immediately you could see the figure of a man lying on the deck in between the fish that we'd caught.

The body was barely touched. Usually when anything dies in the ocean, it ends up on the seabed, and then crabs and lobsters and little sharks and fish will be eating it.

And honestly, it just looked like a really bad prop from a horror movie. So much so that it was unbelievable.

The body had a tattoo on its hand. It was really difficult to tell what the tattoo was. And we noticed quite soon that the guy was wearing a Rolex watch.

My father knew everything. that immediately the catch would have to be condemned. So all the fish that had been caught with the body would have to just be kicked over the side, dead. By condemning the catch, we were condemning ourselves to going home without a paycheck for that day.

In the UK, If you find a dead body and no relations can be found, then after 13 weeks you become liable for the burial or disposal of that body. The person who found them has to deal with the funeral arrangements costs.

But then myself and my dad had a discussion, and my dad felt strongly that if one of us had gone missing at sea, then my mother would definitely prefer to know we were dead than always be wondering what happened, etc. So we came to that conclusion that the right thing to do would be to report this so that the dead person's loved ones could get some sort of closure.

So there was quite a crowd on the quayside as we came alongside. And then we just received instructions to wait for a certain police officer to come down to the boat.

The pockets had obviously been turned out, so I asked myself and my father if we'd taken the guy's wallet.

Police have that ability to make you feel guilty. Suddenly being questioned about grave robbing or stealing things from dead bodies, it wasn't much fun at all.

We said if we were going to take his wallet, we'd probably have his Rolex watch as well.

He picked up the guy's arm, took the watch off his wrist and said, it's not a real Rolex because it's not working. At which point it started to tick again because it was a kinetic watch.

The watch I was wearing on that day was engraved with my name and birthday on the back, which was given to me as a gift. I said, it might be worth checking the back of the watch for an engraving. The officer shot Craig a look. And he said, your problem is you've been watching too much effing Inspector Morse. It was more than dismissed.

He made me feel terrible, like watching too much fucking Inspector Morse. I was like, I'm not going to say anything else.