During the summer of 1939, the Admiralty commenced requisitioning the first of around 400 trawlers and drifters between 200 and 600 tons for a rebuild of the auxiliary fleet. Half of the vessels would be equipped for A/S duties, the rest for mine-sweeping. By the end of the summer, eighty-seven ships were acquired, twenty of them directly from the yards.9
As the outbreak of war approached, further ships in every fishing port around Britain were taken over as they returned from the fishing grounds. Nets, warps and tackle were stowed away on land while the fish-holds, still smelling of the last catch, were turned into mess decks. Then trucks arrived with floats, otters, kites, wires and a multitude of crates. A 4-inch gun, or sometimes a 12-pounder, was mounted on the foredeck, usually after a strengthening of hull frames and deck beams. One or two 20-mm Oerlikon or Bofors guns aft of the funnel, a couple of Lewis or Hotchkiss machine guns in the bridge wings for close A/A defence and a few rifles for destruction of drifting mines completed the armoury. On top of most trawlers’ bridge houses an open enclosure was set up, known as ‘mount misery’, complete with a sheltered chart table, master compass and voice-pipes. Confusion reigned, but somehow most ships had rigged their gear and were ready for war within a couple of days. Royal Naval Reservist Sidney Kerslake, a fisherman with four-and-a-half years’ experience of northern waters, was called to the Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) at Lowestoft and was eventually posted on board the trawler Northern Gem:
On 17th September 1939 I found myself on a train with the rest of the crew, bound for Barrow-in-Furness, to join His Majesty’s Ship 194. It turned out to be the armed escort trawler, Northern Gem, which I had seen several times before the declaration of war, on the northern fishing grounds of Iceland, Bear Island, the Spitzbergen grounds, and the Barents Sea. [. . .] Our first glance around the Gem gave us a picture of complete shambles. Everything seemed to be in pieces, with gear of all shapes and sizes lying about all over the place, decks were cluttered up as were the alleyways, the compartments and the engine room. I believe the only compartment that hadn’t been turned out was the crews’ quarters. [. . .] The armaments consisted of one 4-inch quick firing gun of WWI vintage, set on a platform just above the after end of the whaleback, and behind the windlass which was used for hauling in the anchor, or in some cases hauling the ship alongside the quay by means of the head rope. Amidships, on either side of the Skipper’s cabin, was a sort of half round platform on each of which there was situated a twin Lewis gun. Further aft and actually on top of the galley and in between both the port and starboard lifeboats there was another twin Lewis gun. Apart from the depth-charge rails right in the stern, and the single depth-charge thrower on the deck at each side of the galley. [. . .] nothing much had changed since she had fished. [. . .] The crew consisted of a skipper lieutenant, a coxswain, a leading hand, four or five seamen, a chief and second engineer, two firemen or stokers, a cook and a gunner. [. . .] The flotilla [consisted of] the Northern Dawn, the Northern Wave, the Northern Spray, and the Northern Pride.10
A/S trawler Northern Gem. Northern Gem and her Northern sisters had been built in Germany in 1935 as reparation of debt. They were fine ships, larger than the ordinary British fishing vessels. (E Skjold collection)
Once fitted out and painted in Admiralty grey at local yards and workshops, the smaller and older ships were bundled into mine-sweeping flotillas, four to six in each group. Some of these groups were supplemented by requisitioned paddle steamers, ideal in draught and speed, but only suitable for fine weather, near-shore work. The larger and more modern trawlers received Asdic and depth-charge tackle to fight U-boats.
More often than not, most of the original crew of the drafted boats were kept, while a few navy officers were added, together with weapons specialists and signals staff. Some of the sailors were RNR and had varying amounts of training, others had none. Around 230 trawler skippers had received peacetime training in the handling and use of sweeping gear, as had a handful of RNVR yachtsmen. For these, and other qualified men holding a Board of Trade Certificate of Competency, the special rank of skipper RNR was instituted, equivalent to warrant officer RN. Most ships had an RN officer as commander and a RNR skipper as first officer, but in some a senior RNR skipper acted as commander as well.11 Group leaders were generally RN officers. Retired officers with experience of sweeping were recalled and, after a quick refresher course appointed as port minesweeping officers or commanders of the new mine-sweeping flotillas. By the end of the year, a total of 582 ships, mostly trawlers, drifters and yachts, had been requisitioned for mine-sweeping. An area outside Lowestoft, known as HMS Europa, or more commonly as Sparrow’s Nest, was chosen as a suitable assembly point, depot and headquarters for the rapidly increasing fleet of what was now known as the Royal Naval Patrol Service.12
By February 1940, most trained personnel of the RNR and RNVR had been mobilised and the ‘hostilities only’ personnel started to come in. These were eager enough, but lacked pre-war training and needed a longer time to become functional. In all, 1,921 ships had been requisitioned by 31 December 1939. By April 1940, this had risen to 2,199. Besides mine-sweeping, convoy escort and A/S work, most of the vessels were deployed for harbour protection, contraband control or transportation. A handful of the larger trawlers were assigned as armed boarding vessels (ABVs) operating with the Northern Patrol.13
The quantity of new sailors and officers, many with significant experience from years at sea, opened up a number of unforeseen challenges where discipline and standards of ‘spit and polish’ were somewhat different than in the peacetime Royal Navy. As the auxiliary services were rather unglamorous, the officers tended to be junior, and many young RN lieutenants found it hard to handle seamen twice their age and used to a rough life. Hence, many older RNR or RNVR officers, often from a long life at sea themselves, were sent to the little ships. Discipline, language and uniforms often horrified the career officers on cruisers and destroyers. Having a little ship up front, with sweeps out, was always welcome, though, unless it was a ‘Smokey Joe’ with bad coal, seen from miles over the horizon.
One unit equipped with trawlers was the 15th A/S Striking Force, working off Scotland in the autumn of 1939. Its rather flamboyant commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander Martyn Butt Sherwood on board Cape Pesaro. Lieutenant Colin Warwick reported on board in early September, having been told that Sherwood had requested his RNVR lieutenant to be replaced forthwith by a RNR officer with some experience.14 Warwick later wrote:
Over a pink gin, Sherwood commented that his crew of Hull, Grimsby and Fleetwood deep-sea trawlermen seemed a little ‘mutinous’ regarding his RNVR No. 1’s handling, saying ‘He screams at them and they fart back at him!’ [. . .] Rogers, the Coxswain, told me that my predecessor had refused to handle a problem regarding lice or ‘crabs’ with which most of the seamen had become infected by their female contacts in Hull. ‘Have all the seamen shave off their body hair and dispose of it, and we will see the base doctor about getting some blue ointment to rub on their personal parts,’ I told Rogers.15
After some direct communication with the ‘lads’ in a language they understood, including how the King’s Rules & Regulation and the Admiralty Instructions were to be applied on board, Lieutenant Warwick got a firm grip on the mess deck and the war could commence. Besides Cape Pesaro, the 15th A/S Striking Force consisted of St Goran, commanded by Lieutenant Commander William McGuigan, St Kenan with Lieutenant Jimmy James and St Loman with Lieutenant John Cambridge.16
Rating Bardsley operating the double .303 Lewis gun on board Northern Spray. (E Skjold collection)
These ships were newbuilds taken over by the Admiralty straight from the builder’s yard or only a few years old. They were armed with one 4-inch gun, two or three machine guns (MGs) and forty to fifty depth-charges.