{"id":8645,"date":"2017-03-05T00:11:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T00:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/nuclear-submarine-plans-found-in-welsh-charity-shop\/"},"modified":"2017-03-05T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T00:11:40","slug":"nuclear-submarine-plans-found-in-welsh-charity-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/nuclear-submarine-plans-found-in-welsh-charity-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear submarine plans found in Welsh charity shop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"HMSImage copyright Getty Images <\/figure>\n

A north Wales town has a cold war thriller on its hands after nuclear submarine plans were found in a charity shop suitcase.<\/p>\n

Staff at a Barnardo's store in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, were amazed to discover the document showing details of the former \u00a3200m HMS Trafalgar.<\/p>\n

"Someone said that if the phone rang and it was someone with a Russian accent, I should put it down," joked manager, Stella Parker.<\/p>\n

The plans will be auctioned off.<\/p>\n

Charity store staff say the suitcase was donated anonymously and filled with books.<\/p>\n

But hidden in the lining of the luggage was the impressive 6ft (1.8m) drawings of the former Royal Navy vessel.<\/p>\n

While unusual finds are not uncommon for the charity shop, Ms Parker said she quickly recognised this was something out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

"When I found it I just thought, wow, this is amazing," she said.<\/p>\n

"I can only imagine perhaps the family of someone who had passed away donated the suitcase, that is what often happens. perhaps they did not know the plan was there.<\/p>\n

"We are all very excited here about it and we've certainly never seen anything like it before."<\/p>\n

Image copyright Stella Parker <\/figure>\n

Mrs Parker took the plans to be looked at by experts when the TV show, David Dickinson's Real Deal, visited the Gwynedd town.<\/p>\n

She was told there that the plans were most likely posted on the sub to familiarise the crew with the lay-out of the vessel.<\/p>\n

It seems more likely that the document comes from Vickers, who built Trafalgar, or the submarine's designers.<\/p>\n

During its years in service, Trafalgar prowled under the frozen polar icecaps keeping the then-Soviet threat in check.<\/p>\n

It also served the Afghanistan conflict and became the first Royal Navy submarine to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles against Taliban forces.<\/p>\n

In 1996 the sub gained notoriety after running aground off the Isle of Skye during a training exercise, causing \u00a35m worth of damage. <\/p>\n

Image copyright Stella Parker <\/figure>\n

The Plymouth-based vessel was decommissioned in 2009.<\/p>\n

But foreign agents looking to get their hands on the document today will face an easier task than they did in the 1980s - as the plans have been declassified and are being auctioned by the shop.<\/p>\n

Ms Parker said: "We are hoping to raise as much money as we can. one thing for certain is that you are not going to be able to buy one of these anywhere else."<\/p>\n

Image caption HMS Trafalgar on its final day of active service in 2009 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images A north Wales town has a cold war thriller on its hands after nuclear submarine plans were found in a charity shop suitcase. Staff at a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}