British Steam Trawlers

CONTENTS
Preface.........................................................................................................................7
Chapter 1 Introduction.........................................................................................................11
Origins of steam trawling; Types of fish caught; Territorial fishing limits; Fishing numbers; Sizes of ships; Trawlermen
Chapter 2 Trawls and Trawling Gear.............................................................................................17
The Beam Trawl; The Otter Trawl; Shooting and hauling
Chapter 3 Design and Construction..............................................................................................25
Early design criteria; Freeing ports/scuttles; Plans and drawings; Construction; Trawler engines
Chapter 4 Trawler Deck Fittings and Details....................................................................................33
The trawl winch; Centre bollards; Side bollards; Gallows; Towing blocks; Trawl Doors/Otter Boards; Casing fairleads
Gilsons; Trawler decks; Coaling scuttles; Whaleback; Windlass and cable stoppers; Sanitary arrangements;
Superstructures, Casings and 'Aft side and Fore side jobs'; Funnels and ash shoots; Engine room skylights; Boat decks;
Escape trunks and ports; Life saving equipment; Lifeboat launching gear; Lifelines; Steering gear; Rudders; Propellers
Masts and rigging; Navigation lights; Pole compass; Rules for fishing numbers
Chapter 5 The Pioneers 1860-1880...............................................................................................55
North Shields paddle trawlers; Early steam trawlers; 'Fleeters' and fish carriers
Chapter 6 The Early Years 1880-1900............................................................................................67
Cost of running a steam trawler; Steam tugs as trawlers; Trawling; Aberdeen's early steam trawlers; Dundee shipyards;
Forth shipyards; The Humber shipyards; Later Aberdeen trawlers; South of the border; Plymouth; Long/great liners
Chapter 7 The Edwardian Era and the Years up to the First World War 1900-1914..................................................91
Foreign interest in steam trawlers; Fife builders; Dogger Bank Incident; First whaleback fo'c'sle appears; World wide appeal
The specialist builders; New style otter boards; Wireless equipment; Duthie's survey trawlers and other Aberdeen-built ships
English yards; Drifter/trawlers; Big pre-First World War ships; More Aberdeen trawlers
Chapter 8 The First World War.................................................................................................125
The Auxiliary patrol; RNR trawler section; Trawler armament; Naval trawler building programme; Cost of Admiralty trawlers
Smith's Dock 'Military' group; Hall, Russell's 'Strath' Class; 'Strath' Class builders; Smith's Dock 'Castle' Class
'Castle' Class builders; Cochrane's 'Mersey' Class; 'Mersey' Class builders; Depth charge trawlers; Ex-'Portuguese' Class
'Armentiers' Class; Ex-German prize trawlers; Ex-Russian 'Axe' Class
Chapter 9 1920s – The Fleets Recover..........................................................................................145
The Humber's first post-war ships; Loyalty to Smith's Dock; The Scottish yards; The Lewis family of Aberdeen
Largest Grimsby trawler of the period
Chapter 10 1930s – Decade of Development......................................................................................155
Echo sounders; Liver boilers; Smith's Dock cruiser sterns
Chapter 11 Notable Aberdeen Ships of the 1930s................................................................................159
Chapter 12. 1930s Humber fleets and design improvements.......................................................................163
Consol's 'Footballers'; The Northern Saints; Black's White Elephant Fleet; Cook Welton & Gemmell and Jutland's Ladies
Cochrane's cruiser sterns; First exhaust turbine; Fitting of superheaters;
Forced draught firing; Refrigerated fishrooms; Speed record
Chapter 13. German built northerns and British exports .......................................................................181
British trawlers for South Africa; Hall Russell's French ships
Chapter 14. End of the 1930s .................................................................................................187
Running costs; Last pre-war ships; The mission ships, end of an era
Chapter 15. The Second World War .............................................................................................193
Trawler requisitioning; Types of enemy mines; Naval trawlers,'Bassett' class; 'Tree' class; 'Dance ' class; 'Shakespearian'
class; 'Isles' class; Admiralty's civilian designs; 'Round Table' class; 'Fish' class; 'Hills' class; 'Military' class
Chapter 16. The post war years ...............................................................................................211
Oil firing; Early radar sets and echo sounders; New builds and plate stems; Aberdeen yards; Lewis's 'streamliners';
The English yards; Richards of Lowestoft; More from Aberdeen yards; Yorkshire's 'streamliners'; First with aluminium fishroom
End of 1940s; Foreign orders for new ships
Chapter 17. 1950s the beginning of the end....................................................................................237
Scrap and build; New light rules and icing problems; Lewis's 'triple deckers'; Cook Welton & Gemmell's large 'triple deckers'
Trawlers without boat decks; Marr's new ships; Cochrane's 'triple deckers'; Consol's largest ships;
First minus port side gal lows; The bulbous bow; Bremerhaven built steamers; Cochrane's 'K' class; Last new steam trawlers
Oil prices and territorial limits; Fish transfer at sea
Chapter 18. The 1960s and '70s ...............................................................................................273
The road of no return; Last oil burners leave the Humber; Iceland problems re-emerge
The final exodus; Abbreviations; Epilogue
Appendices ...................................................................................................................283
1. Steam trawler specification 1883...........................................................................................283
2. Specification of outfit for a Grimsby steam trawler (c.1900)...............................................................284
3. Radio installations........................................................................................................285
4. Ports and Owners ..........................................................................................................286
5. Trawler insurance .........................................................................................................297
6. Trawler sales brokers .....................................................................................................298
7. Landing and Distribution ..................................................................................................299
Bibliography..................................................................................................................301
Index of ships ...............................................................................................................302