Marine Accident Investigation Branch Donates Nicola Faith to Cranfield University

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has donated the wreck of Nicola Faith to Cranfield University, where it will be used in the university’s accident investigator training program. The 9.81-meter steel-hulled vessel vanished during a fishing trip off Wales in January 2021, and all three crew members died.

Its new role gives students a real wreck to work from on Cranfield University’s fundamentals of accident investigation course. The vessel will be renamed Pisces II, replacing a vessel called Pisces that has been used at Cranfield for many years.

Nicola Faith wreck at Cranfield University

Nicola Faith was built in 1987 and carried three crew members: Ross Ballantine, Alan Minard and Carl McGrath. Their bodies washed ashore at different locations, and the first was discovered 44 days after the incident.

The wreck was located on April 3 at a depth of 15 meters, 319 meters east of its last transmitted position. Ten days later, investigators identified it.

MAIB findings on Nicola Faith

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch concluded that the vessel had undergone extensive modifications during its lifetime and had been habitually operated in an unsafe manner. Investigators also concluded that Nicola Faith capsized because it was loaded with catch and pots to the point of instability.

In late May, the wreck was recovered from the seabed and moved to a local boatyard before the donation to Cranfield University on May 10, 2026. The transfer places the vessel into a training setting built around evidence from a real capsizing, giving future investigators material drawn from the MAIB case itself.

May 10, 2026 donation

The donation links a widely watched case from January 2021 to classroom training at Cranfield University. Students on the fundamentals of accident investigation course will work with the wreck as Pisces II, using the vessel as a physical reference point for the methods they are learning.