As an inquest opens in London on Monday into the sinking of the French trawler the Bugaled Breizh off the south coast of England in 2004, we look at the deepening mystery.

- 2004: Shipwreck -

On January 15, 2004, the French fishing vessel the Bugaled Breizh capsizes and sinks off Lizard Point, southwest England.

The ship's entire five-man crew are lost.

Maritime authorities near the trawler's home port in Brittany say an international military exercise had been taking place in the area.

Four days later a French prosecutor ruled out a claim that a submarine was involved in the sinking. Instead, a possible collision with a Philippine container ship called the Seattle Trader is put forward. Subsequent paint scans rule out this theory.

When the Bugaled Breizh was raised to the surface in July 2004, no leaks were found.

However, its starboard net cable had been broken and the port cable had been let out 500 metres -- an unusually long stretch -- leading the ship's owner to conclude that something had pulled on the nets and the captain had unfurled the cable to try to re-balance the boat.

- 2005: Submarine theory -

A report by maritime experts in March 2005 said the Bugaled Breizh was probably pulled down after its nets were snagged by a submarine.

The French defence ministry strongly denies the claim.

The French press point to the British Royal Navy's sub, HMS Turbulent, but Britain denies it was to blame.

- 2006: Titanium clue -

In September 2006 lab tests found "unexplained" traces of titanium -- which is used in the paintwork of certain submarines -- on the Bugaled Breizh's cables, suggesting the trawler may have been pulled down by a Dutch submarine.

However, a French government report in November ruled out this possibility, finding that the ship was most likely pulled down after one of its trawler net cables got caught on the sea floor.

- 2008-2010: Sub suspected -

But investigating judges confirmed in April 2008 that they were treating the submarine hypothesis as the most serious possibility.

In April 2010, a new expert report pointed to involvement by a US submarine, which the French magistrates agreed to investigate.

There have been several cases of trawlers being towed and sunk by suspected submarines off the Irish coast during the 1980s.

Britain's Ministry of Defence admitted that one of its subs dragged a Northern Irish fishing trawler backwards at 10 knots through the Irish Sea in 2015, leaving it badly damaged.

- 2013: France drops probe -

In January 2013, two French expert reports dismiss a theory that the Royal Navy's HMS Turbulent, or any other submarine, could have dragged down the trawler.

Six months later French investigators end their probe, rejecting a request from victims families for further inquiries into whether a US submarine may have been involved.

A last-ditch bid by the families to reopen the case in May 2015 also fails, and their appeal was rejected in 2016.

- 2016: Probe moves to England -

The families' hopes then shift to England, where a coroner in Truro, Cornwall, starts to probe the shipwreck.

In October 2016, French media report that a US submarine, the USS Hyman G. Rickover, was in the area shortly before the tragedy.

Washington denies it was in any way involved.

- 2020: New hearing -

The British coroner's court hearing into the shipwreck was adjourned in 2020 due to the pandemic before being transferred to the High Court in London.

The resumed hearing will take place starts Monday and is due to run until October 22.

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