The fishing vessel Gaul was a deep sea factory ship based at Hull, United Kingdom. She was built in 1972 by Brooke Marine of Lowestoft for the Ranger Fishing company and registered at North Shields as Ranger Castor, SN18 but renamed when Ranger Fishing was bought by British United Trawlers and re-registered at Hull as Gaul, H243. She sank some time on the night of 8-9 February 1974 in storm conditions in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. No distress signal was received and her loss was not realised until 10 February after she twice failed to report in. An extensive search operation was launched but no trace of the ship was found, apart from a lifebuoy recovered three months later. All thirty-six crew were lost. The president of the British Trawler Federation described the loss of the Gaul as "the worst ever single-trawler tragedy".
