A US Navy vessel stunned fishermen after it washed ashore in Ireland – three years after it was thought to have been sunk in a war exercise.

The craft, which appears to be a rescue boat, was built in 2015 in Norfolk, Virginia, at the staggering cost of $120,000 (£95,000).

On Monday, a ferry crew en-route to the Galway Island of Inis Óirr, also known as Inisheer, spotted the rig.

As footage shows, the red coloured boat was towed back to the island, where intrigued locals assumed it was a lost US Coast Guard rescue boat.

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But their investigations soon revealed the boat was in fact built for the US Navy to use as a moving target during exercises.

Liam O’Brien, owner of the Doolin Ferry Company which first spotted the upturned vessel, said: “Obviously they might have thought they’d sunk it and it resurfaced at some stage, and maybe got caught in maybe the Gulf Stream or something and ended up in our waters.

“We reckon it’s probably been in the water for three years, maybe more.

“There’s goose barnacles growing on it, they’re very long and it takes a very long time for goose barnacles to grow. They’re something like two metres long.”

The barnacles are a delicacy in Portugal and Spain, costing discerning diners up to £90 a plate.

Mr O’Brien, 37, added that "everyone is really surprised" that the US Navy would spend the huge amount on the boat just to blow it up.

“I emailed the company that built this and they’re receiving another contract from the US military for another batch of these boats and it’s $12,000,000," he continued

“One of their workers had said that they build them 100 at a time, so that would mean that these boats are worth between $100,000 and $120,000 each.

“If you look at the defence budget that the Americans have, it’s equal to the next seven biggest nations in the world combined. So that’s probably small change to them.”

What route the lost vessel took to reach Ireland is uncertain, but it comes as no shock to Mr O’Brien that it took so long.

He said: “If it’s just drifting in the water it would move very slow and it could’ve been anywhere, it could’ve been off the coast of Greenland, Iceland or maybe down south, who knows?

The discovery comes as US Vice President Mike Pence visits Ireland, staying at a Trump resort 26 miles down the coast from the ferry company’s base of operations in Doolin, County Clare.

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