AN underwater survey to remove any lingering doubts about the fate of the trawler Gaul will be held in the summer, it has been announced.

Ever since the Hull-registered vessel went down in 1974 in the Barents Sea with the loss of 36 crewmen, including six from the North-East, rumours have persisted that the ship was involved in espionage and that Russians may have been responsible for its sinking.

The Government last night announced Aberdeen firm Halliburton Subsea had been chosen as the main contractor for the survey in summer next year.

The survey will seek to remove any doubts surrounding the sinking of the Gaul by supplementing existing photographic evidence - and it will search for any forensic samples to establish identity using DNA profiling.

The probe will also seek to establish the truth of allegations that the Gaul could have been engaged in intelligence gathering.

Aubrey Bowles, of Walls-end, Newcastle, whose brother Ronald was on board the Gaul, said: "We still would have preferred a manned dive, which the Government has not agreed to.

"We just hope that this time we'll come up with answers that will end the anguish and uncertainty of not knowing what happened."

Shipping minister David Jamieson said: "My department is funding this survey in support of the reopened formal investigation into the loss of the Gaul which is being conducted by Mr Justice Steel.

"In May, the Deputy Prime Minister again made it clear he could not support a manned dive on safety grounds. I am in complete agreement with him.

"I hope it will be of some comfort to the Gaul families that both we and Halliburton will be doing all we can to meet the objectives of the survey which were agreed by the families. Although, of course, there can be no guarantee of success."

Mr Jamision said the first aim of the survey would be to collect video images that explained the loss of the vessel, before work began on the other objectives which would require the evidence to be disturbed.

Representatives of the families will be aboard the survey vessel when it sets sail next summer.

The Gaul families will have an opportunity to learn more about the survey and put questions to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch at a meeting in Hull, in the New Year.

Fact file

*The Hull-registered trawler Gaul was lost off the North Cape, on February 8, 1974. There was no distress signal message and all 36 crew members died in the sinking, 80 miles north of Norway.

* A formal investigation, held during September and October 1974, concluded the vessel capsized and foundered in heavy seas, but no direct evidence was found.

*The wreck was discovered in August 1997 by an expedition funded by UK and Norwegian television companies.

* Following a survey, carried out at the instruction of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch, it was announced that important evidence had been found and the investigation was reopened in August 1998.

* In February 1999 families of the men said a video survey of the ship had revealed a hole in the hull. At the same time, it was claimed Soviet intelligence records showed a Nato military exercise was taking place in the area during the period of the sinking.

* In August 1999 a Government team exhumed the bodies of two seamen washed ashore in North Russia in 1974, but test results announced in April 2000 showed there was no connection with the Gaul.

*The six North-East men who died were: Ronald Bowles, of Wallsend and James Wales, John O'Brien, Neil Peterson, James Woodhouse and James McKellen from North Shields.