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[edit] Steam trawlers

This narrative is an extract from a paper of maritime historical research Steam Trawlers circa 1890 until 1970, and deals with one particular vessel, having served as Chief Officer for some time on board this vessel, which was built during the period of the first world war as part of an Admiralty program to replace the large number of minesweeper losses, most of which had been commercial fishing trawlers at the out break of war in 1914, they were hurriedly requisitioned and converted to suit the Royal Navy requirements for the dangerous task of sweeping mines laid by the German Navy. By 1916 it became obvious to the Admiralty that no additional commercial trawlers were being replacements for the vast number of mine sweeper losses became an urgent priority, therefore contracts were placed with many shipyards throughout the U.K. and ordered to be constructed as soon as practicable.[1]


As far back as 1907 the Admiralty realised that fishing trawlers were ideally suited to be adapted as mine sweepers with minimal alteration being necessary, equally the fishing crew-members, well accustomed to handling similar type of gear became the obvious choice of operating personnel.[2]


During the quiet period between 1907 and 1914 fifteen or so, commercial trawlers of varying sizes and age were purchased by the Royal Navy and adapted to become mine sweepers, after much trial and error a reasonable system was introduced and fishermen were encouraged to join the new Auxiliary Patrol Service - similar to the Territorial Army. When the war did start many of these fishermen immediately commenced mine-sweeping duties, often on the ships they had been fishing on shortly before. Prior to contracts being offered to the various shipyards three prototype vessels were chosen to serve as the standard designs for the Admiralty craft, and virtually set a pattern of British Steam Trawlers for several decades, these were the Aberdeen built 'Strath' class, based on the Hall Russell designed STRATHLOCHY, of some 202 tons; The 'Castle' class, based on the Smiths Dock, Middlesborough, designed RAGLAN CASTLE, 275 tons, and the largest class 'Mersey', based on the LORD MERSEY, 324 tons from Cochrane of Selby, each of these having recently been built for commercial use and were proven successful designs, costing about £21,000 to construct, and, if fortunate enough to survive the perils of war and weather were sold as surplus for about half that amount during the 1920's.[3]


During the 1914 - 1918 conflict there were well over five hundred of these vessels ordered from many British Shipyards, there is an interesting aspect regarding the names selected for such a large number of new ships to be commissioned into the Royal Navy, some very astute members in the Admiralty at that time came up with the bright idea to choose the names taken from the official crew roster of the 100 gun, ships of the line, H.M.S. Victory, and H.M.S. Royal Sovereign, at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar, (none of these worthy Tar's could ever have known THEIR names would be perpetuated in the annals of the records of Royal Naval History (apart from having played a part in the famous battle)). The only one of this group of Castle Class mine sweeping trawlers, and for that matter the only known steam driven trawler of this type, to have survived, at the time of writing, mid 2000, is the Samuel Green, serving as a floating restaurant moored in Leith Docks, opposite the old Customs House, at the old King's Wark berth, a worthy companion to the Royal Yacht, Britannia, the outward appearance of the old Samuel Green, has changed very little, though minus the boiler, the original solid triple expansion steam engine remains in situ.[4]





[edit] The Trawlers

Trawlers were useful vessels mainly employed on minesweeping and anti-submarine patrol duties. Their tonnage ranged from 134 to 700 with a speed from 10.5 to 12.5 knots. Between 1928 and 1940 one hundred and sixteen were launched. Sixty seven were purchased at the outbreak of WW2. Most of them were armed with one 4 inch gun. Their service was of great importance and value with the trawler "Moonstone" of 615 tons having the distinction of capturing an Italian submarine. In 1942 The Royal Canadian Navy was known to have five trawlers. The Royal New Zealand Navy construction included thirteen of these vessels and the Royal Indian Navy seven of them.[5]


The naval trawler is a concept for expeditiously converting a nation's fishing boats and fishermen to military assets. England used trawlers to maintain control of seaward approaches to major harbors. No one knew these waters as well as local fishermen, and the trawler was the ship type these fishermen understood and could operate effectively without further instruction. The Royal Navy maintained a small inventory of trawlers in peacetime, but requisitioned much larger numbers of civilian trawlers in wartime. The larger and newer trawlers and whalers were converted for antisubmarine use and the older and smaller trawlers were converted to minesweepers.[6]

In September 1939, while 140 newly requisitioned trawlers were fitting out for antisubmarine service, the Royal Navy established the 1st A/S group of 5 trawlers at Portsmouth, the 2nd A/S group of 3 trawlers in the Western Approaches, the 3rd A/S group of 3 trawlers at Rosyth, and the 4th A/S group of 5 trawlers in the Mediterranean.[7]

Armament A single deck gun was mounted on each trawler. Antisubmarine trawlers were usually given a 4" gun approximately equal to the deck guns of the submarines they might encounter. Minesweeping trawlers usually received a 12 pounder, although vintage 3 pounders or 6 pounders were sometimes fitted temporarily until more suitable weapons became available. Trawlers were also given between two and four .303 calibre Lewis guns which were later augmented with a similar number of 20mm machineguns. In a surface battle with a U-boat, the trawler attempted to dissuade the U-boat deck gun crew with machineguns, while the U-boat might similarly aim its 20mm at the trawler's unshielded deck gun.[8]

Antisubmarine trawlers were fitted with ASDIC and a few depth charge racks. Antisubmarine trawlers were typically assigned to five-ship groups. Small trawlers were difficult torpedo targets; and, while a U-boat might best a single trawler in a gunnery contest, it would be unable to withstand the combined attention of several trawlers. Antisubmarine trawlers could establish and maintain defensive perimeters around convoy assembly areas within which individual cargo ships could gain their formation stations for ocean steaming.[9]

By May 1940 antisubmarine trawler strength had increased to 9 at Portsmouth, 23 in the Western Approaches, 65 at Rosyth, 19 at The Nore, 12 at Dover, and 25 in the Orkney & Shetlands. The Mediterranean force had increased to 12 and new groups of five were stationed at Gibraltar and in the South Atlantic. Another 20 trawlers were fitting out for antisubmarine service.[10]

Trawlers are eminently seaworthy; so, when convoy escorts were needed after the fall of France, antisubmarine trawlers were pressed into escort service for which they were poorly suited. With maximum speeds of 10 to 12 knots, trawlers were able to maintain screening stations, but unable to maneuver effectively. If a trawler left station to investigate a contact or rescue the crew of a torpedoed ship, hours might pass before the trawler could regain station on the moving convoy. Escorting trawlers might discourage a timid U-boat acting independently, but an aggressive U-boat captain could use the superior surface speed of the U-boat to outmaneuver trawlers.[11]

Successful wolf pack attacks of 1940 -- like the battle of HX-79 -- occured because slow escorts could be distracted to one side of the convoy giving time for a U-boat to approach and attack from another direction.[12]

The Royal Navy classified requisitioned trawlers by manufacturer, although such classes were more diverse than traditional naval classifications:

Class[13] Builder Dates Built Lost Dspl
(tons)		 Length
(feet)		 Power
(ihp)		 Speed
(kts)		 Men Armament
Mersey Cochrane 11 [14] 2 438 148 600 11 20 2x3in guns
Castle Smith's Dock 145 360 18
Strath Hall Russell 311 18
*Basset 18 [15] - 460 12 33 3in gun
Tree 20 [16] 6 530 164 850 11.5 35 12pdr gun, 2x.5in, 2xtwin MG
Dance 20 [17] 1 530 161 850 11.5 35 4in gun, 3x20mm
Shakes-
pearian		 12 [18] 3 545 164 950 12 35 12pdr gun, 3x20mm
Isles 112 [19] 12 545 164 850 12 40 12pdr gun, 3x20mm
Admiralty 600 14 35
Portu-
guese		 550 11 30
Brazilian 680 12.5 40
Castle 625 10 32
Hills 8 [20] 2 750 181 970 11 35 (40?) 12pdr gun, 3x20mm
Fish 8 [21] 1 670 167 700 11 35 4in gun, 3x20mm
Round 8 [22] - 440 137 600 12 35 12pdr gun, 1x20mm, 2xMG
Military 9 [23] - 750 193 1000 11 40 4in gun, 4x20mm
Requisi-
tioned		 215 [24] 72 These were ships taken over by the Admiralty
  • The trawler BASSET, built in 1935, became the prototype for nearly 250 military trawlers built in the following ten years. The BASSET class trawlers were minesweeping trawlers built to a British design in India.

Basset class trawlers

In addition to the above, there were 215 trawlers with no specific class. These were ships taken over by the Admiralty. 72 ships of this class were lost


Many of the above listed trawlers were employed for minesweeping rather than antisubmarine work. Antisubmarine trawler distribution in May 1944 included 28 at Portsmouth, 33 in the Western Approaches, 10 at Rosyth, 7 at The Nore, 28 at Plymouth, and 36 in the Orkney & Shetlands. There were 10 trawlers at Gibraltar, 17 in the central Mediterranean, and 13 in the eastern Mediterranean. The South Atlantic force had increased to 22; and there were 12 in Iceland, 8 in the Azores, 13 in West Africa, 19 in South Africa, and 15 in the Indian Ocean.

U-boats sunk by trawlers (at least partial credit):

   U-111, U-343, U-452, U-551, U-731, and U-732.

A/S Trawlers sunk by German U-boats (16)

   Alouette, Barbara Robertson, Bedfordshire (USN load),
   Birdlip, Bredon, Ellesmere, Eoor Wyke, Ganilly, Hatburn Wyke,
   Kingston Sapphire, Laertes, Lady Shirley, Notts County, Orfasy,
   Rosemonde and Tervani[25]



[edit] See also

[edit] References

Notes
  1. ^ on the ocean
  2. ^ on the ocean
  3. ^ on the ocean
  4. ^ on the ocean
  5. ^ Royal Navy History
  6. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  7. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  8. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  9. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  10. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  11. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  12. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  13. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)
  14. ^ http://uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=335 Mersey class trawler]
  15. ^ Basset class trawler
  16. ^ Tree class trawler
  17. ^ Dance class trawler
  18. ^ Shakespearian class trawler
  19. ^ Isles class trawler
  20. ^ Hills class trawler
  21. ^ Fish class trawler
  22. ^ Round class trawler
  23. ^ Military class trawler
  24. ^ No specific class trawler
  25. ^ A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)


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[edit] External links