Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some, known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers", were purpose-built to naval specifications; others were adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy Trawling in all types of weather, and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck, ASDIC sonar below, and a or gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.
History
Armed trawlers were also used to defend fishing groups from enemy aircraft or submarines. The smallest civilian trawlers were converted to
danlayers.
Contemporary
Some nations still use armed trawlers for fisheries protection and patrol. The
Indian Navy used naval trawlers for patrol duties during its involvement in the Sri Lankan civil war.
North Korea has notoriously used armed trawlers as
. In 2001 the Japanese sank a North Korean naval trawler after a six-hour battle known as the battle of Amami-Ōshima.
Somali pirates have commandeered trawlers and armed them for attacking freighters off the Horn of Africa; the action of 18 March 2006 involved a naval trawler used by pirates.
Trawler classes
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Portuguese class
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Type 139
Around the world
Belgium
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Belgian
Belgian Navy purchased several British war surplus naval trawlers. They were operational during the 1940 Battle of Belgium, and one of them, , evacuated a large quantity of the National Bank's gold reserves to Britain shortly before Belgium's surrender.
Brazil
As with Portugal, the British Royal Navy had a number of trawler-type warships on order from Brazilian shipyards. With the declaration of war by Brazil against Germany in 1942 these vessels were transferred to the Brazilian Navy for anti-submarine and escort duties.
[Chesneau p. 417]
China
People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) uses naval trawlers as
, as well as fishing when PLAN was allowed to conduct business activities to supplement the huge military expenditure. In addition, prior to Chinese economic reform, it was relatively easy for PLAN to commandeer private vessels for military use in emergency situations when everything was government-owned in
planned economy, but this has become increasingly difficult to do after the reform due to private ownership. However, PLAN has to keep a very large number of auxiliary minesweepers to prepare for war, and as a result, when naval trawlers had retired from their intelligence gathering role, they were converted to auxiliary
and placed in operational reserve of PLAN.
In addition, environmental problems have caused constant geological/geographical/hydrographical changes in Chinese waters, hence creating huge survey requirement, thus a number of these naval trawlers retired from their spy ship roles have also been converted to
to meet the extremely heavy hydrographic survey requirement.
Chinese naval trawlers include Type 113, Type 801, Type 8105, Type 8101, Type 8154 and Type 792 naval trawlers.
France
The French Navy used trawlers requisitioned from civilian use in wartime. In the Second World War 480 trawler-type vessels were in service as auxiliary mine-sweepers, and a further 60 as auxiliary patrol vessels.
[Chesneau p. 279]
Germany
During the Second World War the
Kriegsmarine operated trawlers as
Vorpostenboot (outpost boats) and as
; the was an example. It also used a large number of
Kriegsfischkutter, trawlers built after the 24m long model "G" of the scientifically developed fishing cutter models (seven "Reichsfischkutter"-models A to- G), redesigned for naval uses such as anti-submarine warfare, but intended for conversion to fishing vessel after the war.
The weather trawler programme was a major disaster for the German war effort; it has even been suggested that it was one of the major contributors to Germany's defeat. The British Royal Navy monitored and pursued them relentlessly, capturing or sinking many. The reason was not just the strategic importance of weather data, but that the trawlers were carrying Enigma machine and information, which when captured helped the British to crack the Enigma code, enabling them to read Germany's secret communications; the Germans discontinued the use of weather trawlers as they were too vulnerable, though they had not understood how their weather missions compromised Enigma.
India
The Royal Indian Navy operated trawlers mostly for wartime coastal defence; more than 50 s were ordered, but only 22 were completed, with four more being destroyed before completion when their shipyards were overrun by the Japanese in Burma. The remaining 25 were cancelled. They were used for coastal anti-submarine patrols and mine-sweeping duties.
Japan
As the Second World War progressed, Japan commandeered some fishing vessels for use as picket boats. To augment these, and to replace losses, the Imperial Japanese Navy also ordered a group of 280 picket boats, built on trawler lines but to Navy specifications. This was the , though ultimately only 27 were completed.
New Zealand
In World War II the Royal New Zealand Navy operated 35 minesweepers, including 20 purpose-built naval trawlers (thirteen class, three class, four class), five converted fishing trawlers, and ten converted merchant vessels.
Norway
Norway had a large fishing and whaling fleet industry. For the Second World War the Royal Norwegian Navy used six converted whalers and 22 other fishing vessels as minesweepers, and a further ten as patrol craft.
[Chesneau p. 381] The Royal Norwegian Navy also used a German naval trawler captured in April 1940 and put into service as . After the occupation of Norway the Free Norwegian forces used fishing vessels for their clandestine
Shetland bus operations in support of the Norwegian resistance.
Portugal
Though Portugal was neutral or non-belligerent throughout the Second World War, a number of steel and wooden-hulled vessels were built there to trawler design for the Royal Navy. These s were delivered in 1942, but further construction was halted after protests from Nazi Germany. Later, as Portugal became more closely involved with the western allies, Britain transferred a number of s to the Portuguese Navy as anti-submarine vessels.
[Chesneau p. 67]
Romania
Romania acquired three German KFK naval trawlers in 1943.
[Cornel I. Scafeș, Armata Română 1941-1945, RAI Publishing, 1996, p. 174.]
Spain
The Basque Auxiliary Navy operating autonomously in the Bay of Biscay on the side of the Spanish Republican Army during the early Spanish Civil War featured 7 naval trawlers.
United Kingdom
During the First World War, the
Royal Navy operated 627 "Admiralty Trawlers" which had been purpose-built, purchased from foreign countries, or acquired as prizes. A further 1,456 trawlers were hired and operated, together with many other kinds of small vessel, by the
Auxiliary Patrol.
Trawlers were mainly employed in minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols and as boom defence vessels.
266 of the hired trawlers were lost while on active service.
Before and during the Second World War, the Royal Navy ordered many naval trawlers to Admiralty specifications. Shipyards such as Smiths Dock Company that were used to building fishing trawlers could easily switch to building naval versions. As a bonus, the Admiralty could sell these trawlers to commercial fishing interests after the end of the war. Many were sunk during the war, such as and . In 1940 Lieutenant Richard Stannard was in command of the naval trawler when he won the Victoria Cross for his actions from 28 April to 2 May 1940 at Namsos in the Norwegian campaign. HMT Arab survived 31 bombing attacks in five days.
During the 1982 Falklands War the Royal Navy hired a flotilla of five trawlers from Kingston-upon-Hull, which were hastily converted to minesweepers, as the Ton-class minesweepers then in service were unsuitable for the long voyage and the heavy seas of the South Atlantic. Although employed with the Task Force on various other auxiliary duties, after the Argentine surrender the trawlers were able to sweep ten naval mines which had been successfully laid in Port Stanley harbour; eleven others had failed to deploy or had broken adrift.
United States
The US Navy generally favoured custom-built warships to civilian conversions, but in the first months of World War II the acute shortage of vessels for coastal defence and anti-submarine work led to the formation of a
mosquito fleet. Twenty steel-hulled and more than 40 wooden-hulled trawlers were commissioned as auxiliary minesweepers (AM designation), but confined to coastal waters and not rated for offensive or convoy escort duties. A further 70 tuna clippers were called up as minesweepers (Amc designation), ten as harbour patrol craft (YP) and 50 as coastal transports (APC).
[Chesneau p. 152] The United States Coast Guard requisitioned ten Boston fishing trawlers for the
Greenland Patrol.
Gallery
File:The Wheelhouse, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART933.jpg|Wheelhouse of a naval trawler
File:A Wireless Operator, Hm Trawler James Hinneford Art.IWMART932.jpg|Wireless operator
File:The Engine Room, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART897.jpg|Engine room
File:The Stokehold, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART903.jpg|Stoker shovelling coal from a bunker
File:Cleaning the Gun, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART898.jpg|Cleaning the gun
File:Forward from the Wheelhouse, Hm Trawler Mackenzie- the figures are just about to slip the 'kite' used to sink the wire hawser to the required depths for sweeping Art.IWMART905.jpg|Slipping the "kite" which controls the mine sweeping depth
File:A Cook in the Galley, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART896.jpg|Cook in the galley
File:Cards in the Fo'c's'le, Hm Trawler Mackenzie Art.IWMART931.jpg|Cards in the fo'c's'le
File:Mail Day in the Fo'c'sle, Hm Trawler James Hinneford Art.IWMART900.jpg|Mail day
See also
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- an armed trawler
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Tuman – Soviet naval trawler sunk in the Kildin Island engagement ''August
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Naval drifter
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Royal Naval Patrol Service
Notes
Reading
External links
