Riddle of Hull’s Gaul victims and a Russian cave of bones

The remains which had been buried in a cave by local people were discovered last year by a Russian official.

West Hull and Hessle MP Alan Johnson has written to Foreign Secretary William Hague in a bid to speed up the process and end the anxious wait for relatives in Hull.

All the families of the 36 men who were lost when the Gaul sank in a storm in February 1974 are being asked to provide DNA samples.

At least five sets of remains, but not more than 10, were placed under rocks on the remote Rybachy peninsula in the Murmansk region of Russia after being washed up in 1974 or 1975.

Assistant chief constable of Humberside Police Alan Leaver said: “I am confident that we will be able in due course to identify whether or not the remains came from the Gaul.

“We have offered through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to assist the Russians and the Russians have indicated a willingness to take us up on that.

“Precisely what the timescales will be I don’t know yet but they are willing for us to assist them.”

Mr Johnson said: “I just want first of all to reinforce the sense of urgency; the families aren’t getting any younger and we have the 40th anniversary in February and I am asking is there anything we can do to move things on? Can we support what they are doing?

“This is the country where DNA (testing) was invented, we are ahead of the world in this.”

It has emerged that the bodies were found by an official who carries out annual sweeps of the coastline on behalf of the Russian authorities.

In 1999 he was involved in an attempt to identify four bodies washed up on the coast in 1974 and made a promise then to keep looking for Gaul victims.

Could fate of crew lost in Arctic finally be revealed? Page 11.