Naval trawler

In the aftermath of the First World War, the Belgian Corps de Marine purchased several British war surplus naval trawlers. They were operational during the Battle of Belgium (1940) and one of them, A4, evacuated a large quantity of the National Bank's gold reserves to Britain shortly before Belgium's surrender.

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.[4]

The French Navy also made use of trawlers requisitioned from civilian use during wartime. In the Second World War 480 trawler type vessels were in service as auxiliary mine-sweepers and a further sixty as auxiliary patrol vessels.[5]

During the Second World War the Kriegsmarine operated trawlers as Vorpostenboot (outpost boats) and as weather ships; the Lauenburg 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 Royal Indian Navy operated trawlers mostly for coastal defence; more than fifty Basset-class trawlers were ordered, but only twenty-two were completed with four more being destroyed before completion due to their shipyards being overrun by the Japanese in Burma. The remaining twenty-five were cancelled. They were used for coastal anti-submarine patrols and mine-sweeping duties.

Japanese armed trawler seen through the periscope of USS Albacore, Nov. 17, 1944

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 No.1 class auxiliary patrol boat, though eventually only twenty-seven were completed.

Main article, Minesweepers of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

During World War II the Royal New Zealand Navy operated thirty-five minesweepers, including twenty purpose-built naval trawlers (thirteen Castle class, three Bird class four Isles class), five converted fishing trawlers, and ten converted merchant vessels.

Norway had a large fishing and whaling fleet industry. For the Second World War the Royal Norwegian Navy made use of six converted whalers and twenty-two other fishing vessels as minesweepers and a further ten as patrol craft.[6] The Royal Norwegian Navy also made use of a captured German naval trawler, taken as prize in April 1940 and put into service as HNoMS Honningsvåg. After the occupation of Norway the Free Norwegian forces made use of fishing vessels for their clandestine Shetland bus operations in support of the Norwegian resistance.

Though Portugal was neutral throughout the Second World War, a number of steel and wooden-hulled vessels were built to trawler design for the Royal Navy. These Portuguese-class naval trawlers 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 Isles-class trawlers to the Portuguese Navy as anti-submarine vessels.[7]

Romania acquired three German KFK naval trawlers in 1943.[8]

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.[9] Trawlers were mainly employed in minesweeping, anti-submarine patrols and as boom defence vessels.[10] Of the hired trawlers, 266 were lost while on active service.[9]

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 constructing naval versions. As a bonus, the Admiralty could sell these trawlers to commercial fishing interests when the wars ended. Still, many were sunk during the war, such as HMT Amethyst and HMT Force. In 1940, Lieutenant Richard Stannard was in command of the naval trawler HMT Arab when he won the Victoria Cross for his actions from 28 April to 2 May 1940 at Namsos, Norway. HMT Arab survived 31 bombing attacks in five days.

More recently, during the Falklands War in 1982, 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 deemed to be unsuitable for the long voyage to the South Atlantic. Although employed with the Task Force on various other auxiliary duties, after the Argentine surrender, the trawlers were able to sweep 10 of the 21 naval mines which had been laid in Port Stanley harbour (the remaining mines failed to deploy or had broken adrift).[11]

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 trawlers and more than forty wooden-hulled trawlers were commissioned as auxiliary minesweepers. (AM designation). These however were confined to coastal waters and not rated for offensive or convoy escort duties. A further seventy tuna clippers were called up as minesweepers (Amc designation), ten as harbour patrol craft (YP) and fifty as coastal transports (APC).[12] The United States Coast Guard requisitioned ten Boston fishing trawlers for the Greenland Patrol.[13]