First World War Minesweeping

Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives have recently received the archive of the Aberdeen Steam Fishing Vessels Owners' Association Ltd, known locally as the Trawler Owners (understandable when you consider the length of their official title!) The collection was transferred to us from our colleagues in the AAGM curatorial team at the Treasure Hub.  

In addition to the records themselves, the curators were able to transfer their excellent detailed descriptions of all the items in the collection from their TMS software. With a bit of tweaking (museum and archive cataloguing standards are slightly different, both in terms of how collections are arranged and the data fields required) this data was uploaded into our CALM catalogue and can now be searched here. The benefits of this collection being managed in an archive is that the descriptions can be viewed hierarchically, allowing researchers to understand connections and relationships between items, which isn’t as straightforward in a museum catalogue.  

 

Formed in 1902, ASFVOA was a trade association for trawler owners in Aberdeen. Its object was “to amalgamate or federate for mutual protection owners and managers of fishing vessels and others interested in the fishing and shipping industries”. They employed a Fish Porters Superintendent, negotiated rates of pay for fishermen and fish porters and supported the work of the Aberdeen Steam Fishers' Provident Society (see previous blog post here). Members of the Association included the leading figures of the local fishing industry, including representatives of the Irvin, Craig, Wood and Lewis families. 

 

In this blog post I’ll be looking at what the Association’s minute books (DD3295/1/1/2) can tell us about the impact of the First World War on the fishing industry in Aberdeen, as well as how a number of our fishing collections can link together. 

At the outbreak of war in August of 1914, the minute book notes that key insurers had decided that no vessel insured with them could go to sea unless at their owner’s risk, presumably because of the risk of being attacked by enemy ships. This must have been resolved fairly quickly, as later minutes make it clear that the industry was up and running again, although some fishing grounds were closed.  

 

Minute from September 1914 discusses the requisition of the Association's members' trawlers by the Admiralty for minesweeping during the First World War (DD3295/1/1/2) 

August 1914 also saw a representative from the Admiralty (Capt. Laird) attended the Association’s meeting looking for vessels for the Trawler Reserve. By September Aberdeen were complaining to Captain Laird about the high proportion of vessels requisitioned by the Admiralty from Aberdeen compared to other ports: 88 out of the Aberdeen fleet of 220 had been taken, a much higher proportion (40%) than other ports like Grimsby (15%), Hull (17%) and Fleetwood (19%).  

By November this seemed to have balanced out: 

	Fleet size	Vessels taken
Grimsby	650	200	30%
Hull	380	150	39%
Aberdeen	252	83	33%
Fleetwood	140	40	29%
Milford	72	34	47%
North Shields	61	21	34%

 

In the context of an individual company rather than the Aberdeen industry as a whole: Richard Irvin & Sons provided 12 trawlers on charter in September 1914, and one, the Thomas W. Irvin, had been lost. By the end of that month they reported that they had been asked for 30 drifters, and had provided 12 and sourced another 18 from other companies. Another trawler was taken by the War Office in December 1914, and six more drifters and their crews were chartered by the Admiralty in January 1915 (information from DD2865/1/1/2). 

Richard Irvin & Sons minute of 3rd September 1914 (DD2865/1/1/2)

 

But the Admiralty were still hungry for more: later that November the Admiralty were seeking 30 additional trawlers and were threatening to commandeer them if none were volunteered. ASFVOA were concerned the fishing trade would become “disorganised” if any further vessels were taken. Discussion of this issue continued into 1915: in August the Fourth Sea Lord, Commodore Lambert was proposing that trawler owners combine and pool profits to allow more trawlers to be passed to the navy. 

 

What were the admiralty looking to use the trawlers for? Some appear to have been used as minesweepers, which involved sweeping an area with wire to bring them to the surface then detonate them by firing on them. Other trawlers were needed for “boom defence”, laying anti-submarine nets. Clearly, this was perilous work and many trawlers (and their crews) would be lost during their vital work. Trawler owners were compensated for the ships requisitioned, but there were frequent complaints about the level of compensation offered by the Admiralty. Joining forces with other trawler owner associations around the country, a minesweeping committee was formed to negotiate: these discussions continued throughout the war. 

 

The Aberdeen Harbour Board collection shows that it wasn’t just boats being requisitioned: the Harbour Commissioners took over sections of Regent, Waterloo, Blaikie’s, Jamieson’s, Matthews’, Albert, Mearns’, Pocra and Maitland’s quays (the claim for rent produced by the Commissioners notes that a portion of Matthews’ quay was used as a submarine station, AHB/1/1/29). And we know that hospitals and schools in Aberdeen were requisitioned by the military authorities during the first world war.  

 

At the December meeting the Association discussed vessels being charged dues when they were required to call into to Lerwick on route to the northern fishing grounds to receive instructions from the Naval authorities: this reflects Lerwick’s role as an Examination port to enforce the naval blockade on Germany, as well as the base for escorting convoys and anti submarine patrols.   

 

The wartime minute book also provides evidence of the impact of the German’s submarine blockade, which was adopted from February 1915. In May 1915 the meeting discussed the threat from submarines following “the scare of the 3rd instant”. I believe this refers to a series of attacks by German submarines on British merchant vessels: our Aberdeen Harbour Board registers record that the trawler Martaban had been sunk by a submarine on the 2nd May (its crew had been landed at Stonehaven). On the 4th May the SS JW Stewart arrived at Aberdeen with the remaining crew of the Cruiser from Granton, which had been sunk by a submarine on the 3rd leading to the death of 4 crew members. The J.W. Stewart also reported the sinking of Aberdeen’s Scottish Queen. These attacks received significant coverage in the local press, with headlines like “German Pirates Off Aberdeen” (Aberdeen Evening Express, 23 April 1915), “War on Fishermen” (Aberdeen Weekly Journal 7 May 1915) and “Murder of Fisher Folk” (Aberdeen Daily Journal, 24 April 1915).  

 

The meeting noted that armed vessels from the Admiralty would be accompanying the fishing fleet. The same month the RMS Lusitania had been sunk by a German submarine (also noted in the Harbour Board registers). In September 1915 the Association discussed the crew of the ST Glencarse, which had been captured by the Germans in April 1915 and whose crew had been interned in Germany: the Union asked the Association to help find support the Glencarse crew’s families as the insurance company involved would not pay for their maintenance. The Union was left to act alone. The reaction to the sinking of the passenger liner SS Arabic in August 1915 led to a halt in unrestricted submarine warfare until 1917. This is reflected in the comments in the Harbour Board registers, which include 1 reference to enemy submarines in 1914, 14 in 1915, 1 in 1916 and 8 in 1917.  

 

The war also had an impact on recruitment and prices in the fishing industry. The minute book records an ongoing wage dispute between owners and crews in 1915/1916, followed by discussion of shortage of men later in 1916, owing in part to the successful recruitment of fishing crews to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve’s trawler section. By the last year of the war (April 1918) the Association was resisting calls for the Government to impose a reduction in fish prices in the context of soaring food costs. The minute book notes that they ”approves the suggestion that the price of fish should be reduced in the interest of the consumer: but would respectfully urge the Controller that consideration of the greatly enhanced charges thrown upon the catcher by increased wages, insurance and gear together with the extreme danger to which the Fishermen are exposed.” 

 

 In Dec 1916 the Association received an appeal from Hospital Gifts Committee to trawler owners for fish for wounded soldiers, and in November 1917 the Association discussed the financial position of the Aberdeen Steam Fishers' Provident Society’s “Penny a Day Fund” which was experiencing challenges. The Association agreed to recommend contribution from owners of £5 per boat 

 
We also find an acknowledgment of the cost of the war in February 1919: the meeting recorded their deepest sympathy of those members who had lost their sons, and the families of fishermen and other members of the Trade who had lost their lives. There was also a welcome to one of their members, Sir John H. Irvin (of Richard Irvin & Sons) who had been held in captivity in Germany between September 1916 and November 1918. Newspaper reports in 1916 record that he had been captured from the Dutch mail steamer Prins Hendrik, which had been stopped by a U boat and taken to Zeebrugge where 67 British passengers were taken as prisoners of war.  

 

The Aberdeen Steam Fishing Vessels Owners' Association Ltd collection can be explored in our online catalogue under reference DD3295* and viewed at our Old Aberdeen House office.  

 

Katy Kavanagh, Senior Archivist