Nuclear submarine plans found in Welsh charity shop on a cold war thriller

Nuclear submarine
plans found in Welsh charity shop on a cold war thriller 

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 Barnardo's
store in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, were amazed to discover the document showing
details of the former £200m HMS Trafalgar.

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

The plans will be
auctioned off.

Charity store staff
say the suitcase was donated anonymously and filled with books

But hidden in the
lining of the luggage was the impressive 6ft (1.8m) drawings of the former
Royal Navy vessel.

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

"When I found it I just
thought, wow, this is amazing," she said.

"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.

"We are all very
excited here about it and we've certainly never seen anything like it before."

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

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.

It seems more likely
that the document comes from Vickers, who built Trafalgar, or the submarine's
designers.

In 1996 the sub gained
notoriety after running aground off the Isle of Skye
during a training exercise, causing £5m worth of damage

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