RV Sir Lancelot
 RV Sir Lancelot: Official photo taken in the 1950s
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Name | RV Sir Lancelot |
| Operator | |
| Builder | J. Lewis & Sons Ltd., Aberdeen |
| Yard number | 160 |
| Laid down | 17 July 1941 |
| Launched | 4 December 1941 |
| Commissioned | 26 March 1942 |
| Homeport | Lowestoft |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | |
| Displacement | 440 long tons (447 t) |
| Length | 125 ft (38.1 m) |
| Beam | 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m) |
| Draught | 13 ft 9 in (4.2 m) |
| Complement | 35 naval personnel |
| Armament |
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RV Sir Lancelot (LT263) was a fisheries research vessel that was operated by the Directorate of Fisheries, now known as the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).
It was based at the port of Lowestoft and was originally ordered by the Admiralty as one of eight Round Table-class trawlers during World War II
The Round Table class was a small class of trawlers built for the British Royal Navy in 1941/2. The class were built by two Aberdeen shipbuilding firms Hall, Russell & Company and J. Lewis & Sons Ltd.
All were built to a 1936 design, the Star of Orkney, but were commissioned as minesweepers. Two of the class, Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot were later converted to danlayers.
HMS Sir Lancelot (T228) took part in Operation Neptune, the D-Day landings in June 1944, attached to the 14th Minesweeping flotilla in Force U. She was primarily responsible for marking swept passages to Utah Beach.[1]
After the war and conversion back to a civilian trawler Sir Lancelot came into service as a research vessel in December 1946. In 1962, she was sold to Mrs Karin Meta Alexa Husseini, Hamburg and renamed 'Hair-Ed-Din Barbarossa'.
Construction and wartime history
Constructed by J. Lewis & Sons Ltd. (Aberdeen, Scotland) - Yard Number: 160, Ordered 21 Jan 1941, Laid Down 17 Jul 1941, Launched 4 Dec 1941, Commissioned 26 Mar 1942.
In June 1944 HMS Sir Lancelot (T228) was converted to a danlayer ahead of the D-Day landings. She was attached to the 14th Minesweeping flotilla in Force U and was one of the very first Allied vessels to approach the French coast. In respect of each of the five beach Assault Forces (designated U, O, G, J and S), two channels would be cleared through the mine barrier for the first wave of amphibious infantry. HMS Sir Lancelot was responsible for marking swept Channel 2 ahead of force 'U' on Utah Beach.[1]
On 5 February 1945, HMS Sir Lancelot (T228) picked up survivors from the American merchant ship Henry B. Plant that was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-245 about 17 nautical miles east of Ramsgate in position 51°19'N, 01°42'E.
Service as a fisheries research vessel
RV Sir Lancelot was the primary fisheries survey vessel used by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) throughout the period 1947 to 1960. She was used extensively to assess the status of fish stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel as part of the UK contribution to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)[2]
In 1950, RV Sir Lancelot was used together with 'frogmen' to take photographs and Ciné film of trawl gears in action off Cornwall. In 1951, she was re-deployed off Malta as there was a need for good underwater visibility. The film obtained showed the meshes of the net to be wide open whilst it was being towed and so helped in the acceptance of mesh regulation by fishermen everywhere.[3]
Datasets collected aboard the RV Sir Lancelot were instrumental in the ground-breaking book On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations[4] written by Ray Beverton and Sidney Holt in 1957.
See also
References
- ^ a b Operation Neptune the Minesweeping Operation 5-6 June 1944, by David Verghese. http://www.mcdoa.org.uk/operation_neptune_minesweeping.htm Accessed 18 May 2018.
- ^ Cefas (2014). Trawling Through Time: Cefas Science and Data 1902-2014. Lowestoft: Cefas. p. 5.
- ^ MAFF (1992). The Directorate of Fisheries Research: Its Origins and Development. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Lowestoft. 332pp.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Beverton, R. J. H., and Holt, S. J. 1957. On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations. Fishery Investigations Series II. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London. 533 pp.