Naval trawler

Armed trawler HNoMS Honningsvåg off Iceland.

A naval trawler is a boat built along the lines of a commercial trawler but fitted out for naval purposes.

History

A naval trawler's gun crew mans a 12-pounder 12 hundredweight Mk V gun on the focsle.

Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Commercial trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather. Replace the trawl with a mine sweep and a mine sweeper is created. Trawlers also have large clear working decks which can be suitable for depth charge racks. Adding asdic and a 4-inch gun up front creates an anti-submarine boat.

Armed trawlers were also used to defend fishing groups from enemy aircraft or submarines. The smallest civilian trawlers were converted to danlayers.

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

— uboat.net,

The Royal Navy ordered many naval trawlers to Admiralty specifications. Shipyards used to building fishing trawlers could easily switch to constructing naval versions. As a bonus these trawlers could be sold to commercial fishing interests when the wars ended.

See also

• Royal Naval Patrol Service
• Trawlers of the Royal Navy
• Minesweepers of the Royal New Zealand Navy
• HM Trawler Force - an armed trawler
• Vorpostenboot - German Armed trawlers of WW II
• Naval drifter

Reading

• Lund, Paul and Ludlam, Harry (1971) The Trawlers go to War ISBN 978-0572007683
• Lund, Paul and Ludlam, Harry (1978) Out Sweeps! - The Story of the Minesweepers in World War II. New English Library Ltd ISBN 9780450044687
• McKee, Alexander (1973) The Coal-Scuttle Brigade : The splendid, dramatic story of the Channel convoys. New English Library ASIN B000RTAX2Y

External links

• The Trawlers go to War
• A/S Trawlers (uboat.net)>
• Memorial site to a trawler skipper
• The Battle of Mesco Point
• The Dover Convoys