The Trawler Reserve and Minesweeping: January 1915–December 1917

Author(s):  
Robb Robinson

This chapter focuses on minesweeping vessels in service in the seas around the British Isles in the early spring of 1915. It describes the domestic sphere of operations of trawlers and their crews that primarily focused on the east coast of England. It also mentions the minesweepers that sailed out of Scottish ports and provided protection for the Grand Fleet and other Royal Navy surface ships. The chapter looks at the disposition of the flotillas of fishermen and hired fishing vessels that reflected the main areas of German minelaying off the coasts of Britain in the first year of the Great War. It details the significant operations that had taken place off the eastern side of the Dogger Bank.

Author(s):  
Robb Robinson

Recent discussion, academic publications and many of the national exhibitions relating to the Great War at sea have focused on capital ships, Jutland and perhaps U-boats. Very little has been published about the crucial role played by fishermen, fishing vessels and coastal communities all round the British Isles. Yet fishermen and armed fishing craft were continually on the maritime front line throughout the conflict; they formed the backbone of the Auxiliary Patrol and were in constant action against U-boats or engaged on unrelenting minesweeping duties. Approximately 3000 fishing vessels were requisitioned and armed by the Admiralty and more than 39,000 fishermen joined the Trawler Section of the Royal Naval Reserve. The class and cultural gap between working fishermen and many RN officers was enormous. This book examines the multifaceted role that fishermen and the fish trade played throughout the conflict. It examines the reasons why, in an age of dreadnoughts and other high-tech military equipment, so many fishermen and fishing vessels were called upon to play such a crucial role in the littoral war against mines and U-boats, not only around the British Isles but also off the coasts of various other theatres of war. The book analyses the nature of the fishing industry's war-time involvement and also the contribution that non-belligerent fishing vessels continued to play in maintaining the beleaguered nation's food supplies.


Author(s):  
David G. Morgan-Owen

The Royal Navy thought about war in a particular way in the late nineteenth century. This chapter explains how the contemporary Navy understood strategy as it pertained to protecting the United Kingdom from invasion. By examining the different approaches taken to war against France and Germany between 1885 and 1900 it shows how the Admiralty understood the defence of the British Isles in this period in largely symmetrical terms. The battle fleet remained key to naval warfare and to preventing invasion, but it did not need to be shackled to the British coastline in order to prevent a hostile power from attempting to cross the Channel.


Author(s):  
G.W. Sheath ◽  
R.W. Webby ◽  
W.J. Pengelly

Comparisons of controlling late spring to early summer pasture growth on either easy or steep contoured land with either a fast rotation or continuous grazing policy were made in self-contained farmlets for two years. Pasture control was maintained over more land by controlling steep land first and with continuous grazing. Animal performances (ewes, steers) were generally similar for the mid-November to early January treatment period, and subsequently until May shearing. In the first year better animal performances occurred in "steep control" farmlets during winter and early spring, but this was less evident in the second year. Priority control of steep land during late spring-early summer is recommended because of likely longer-term benefits in pasture composition,density and production. Quick rotation grazing through the period provides a better ability to recognise and manage pasture quantities and should be adopted if summer droughts are anticipated. For well fenced properties in summer-wet areas and with integrated stock grazing, continuous grazing during late spring-early summer may be equally suitable. Keywords: hill country, grazing management, pasture control


Author(s):  
Robb Robinson

This chapter analyses the role that fishermen and the fishing industry came to play in the Great War and the contribution they made to the British maritime war effort. It discusses mines that sunk many warships as one of the key reasons why fishermen and fishing vessels came to play a vital role on the maritime front line. It also recounts the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 that had a dramatic, immediate, and profoundly direct impact on Hull fishermen. The chapter looks at the lessons learned from the Russo-Japanese War by naval strategists, which have long-term implications for the British fish trade and for the fishermen who manned the vessels. It describes the Great War as the first twentieth-century conflict in which both sides deployed a great deal of modern naval weaponry and products of the new military-industrial order.


Author(s):  
Robb Robinson

This chapter discusses the German minelaying assault on the waters around the British Isles that had passed its peak due to the growing effectiveness of British countermeasures. It details the difficulty of Germans to maintain high levels of mine production given the pressing demands of other military priorities. It also focuses on specific objectives that are discerned from a study of minelaying activities during the last year of the Great War. The chapter illustrates the great barrage that the Germans tried to lay on one specific stretch of the Scottish coast during the spring and summer of 1918, which was undertaken on a considerable scale. It examines the German operation that was a key part of an even wider strategy aimed at ensnaring the dreadnoughts of the Grand Fleet amongst the mines of the great barrage.


Author(s):  
Robb Robinson

This chapter recounts the demobilisation of Auxiliary Patrol vessels and fishermen that began in early 1919, in which the bases from which the force had operated were already being run down. It describes the dismantling of the Auxiliary Patrol as a major task that involved thousands of people and vessels and took some considerable time to organise and carry through to fruition. It also talks about fishing vessels and crews that returned to their home ports from bases around the British Isles and beyond. The chapter mentions Skipper William Oliver, who had been stationed in Malta and commanded the minesweeping trawlers that were amongst the first to return from the Mediterranean. It highlights the disappearance of drifter John Robert and its 11 crew members while voyaging from Messina to Alexandria on 1 February 1919.


2001 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 225-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.W. Lindsay

AbstractThe RADARSAT geophysical processor system (RGPS) uses sequential synthetic aperture radar images of Arctic sea ice taken every 3 days to track a large set of Lagrangian points over the winter and spring seasons. The points are the vertices of cells, which are initially square and 10 km on a side, and the changes in the area of these cells due to opening and closing of the ice are used to estimate the fractional area of a set of first-year ice categories. The thickness of each category is estimated by the RGPS from an empirical relationship between ice thickness and the freezing degree-days since the formation of the ice. With a parameterization of the albedo based on the ice thickness, the albedo may be estimated from the first-year ice distribution. We compute the albedo for the first spring processed by the RGPS, the early spring of 1997. The data include most of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. We find that the mean albedo is 0.79 with a standard deviation of 0.04, with lower albedo values near the edge of the perennial ice zone. The biggest source of error is likely the assumed rate of snow accumulation on new ice.


2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Bell ◽  
Peter Shaughnessy ◽  
Margie Morrice ◽  
Bob Stanley

Observers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority worked on randomly chosen Japanese long-line vessels in the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ) between 1980 and 1997. Observer reports (n = 451) were inspected for interactions or sightings of marine mammals. An operational interaction was defined as an activity or behaviour that involved direct contact between a marine mammal and fishing gear, bait, target fish or bycatch, or indications that the marine mammal was feeding. A sighting was defined as the recording of marine mammals that passed the vessel without changing course and/or did not appear to interact with the vessel or its gear. Observers witnessed 23 interactions and made another 44 sightings of marine mammals. A further 24 interactions and sightings were relayed by crew members. Killer whales were reported most frequently: most incidences of fish being damaged, taken or frightened away were attributed to them. Eleven marine mammals were caught: two died, seven were released, and the fate of two others was not recorded. Between 1991 and 1996, when observer coverage was 11.5% overall in the AFZ, the incidence of interactions was 1.71 per million hooks set. The estimated number of interactions in that seven-year period was 157 in the AFZ. Since 1997, the long-line fishery has been conducted by Australian vessels, primarily off the east coast of mainland Australia in warm-temperate waters. A higher proportion of interactions can be expected with killer whales and short-finned pilot whales in these waters, and fewer with seals.


Oryx ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-101
Author(s):  
H. G. Hurrell

Devon has had the honour of being the venue for the first Annual Conference of the Mammal Society of the British Isles. Exeter, its county town, housed the conference and though it is not centrally placed for the country as a whole, it deserved consideration because Devon provided the Society with more members in its first year than any other county.


The Auk ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Desrochers ◽  
Susan J. Hannon ◽  
Kelly E. Nordin

Abstract We assessed the effects of winter food supplementation on differential survival between sex, age and dominance classes, and the effects of feeding and territorial defense on breeding density in a northern population of Black-capped Chickadees (Parus atricapillus). Survival rates were higher in a food-supplemented area than in a control area, which suggests that food abundance limited winter survival. Survival was greater among males than lower-ranking females in 1 of 2 years, and greater in dominants than in subordinates, within sex and age classes. Survival of adults and first-year birds, however, did not differ significantly. In the 2 years of this study, a sharp decline of population size occurred at the onset of territoriality in spring. Birds that disappeared in spring were mainly subordinates of each sex. Breeding densities in control and feeder areas were similar in the two years. Eight of 14 territorial birds removed in 2 years were replaced, implying that a nonbreeding surplus was present in early spring.


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