Additional information courtesy of Andy Hall and Christine Simm

Technical

Official Number: 127102
Yard Number: 388
Completed: 1909
Gross Tonnage: 248
Net Tonnage: 96
Length: 125.5 ft
Breadth: 22.1 ft
Draught: 12.8 ft
Built: Smith’s Dock Co Ltd, North Shields
Engine: T.3-cyl Shields Engineering & Dry Dock Co Ltd, North Shields

History

3.2.1909: Launched by Smith’s Dock Co Ltd, North Shields (Yd.No.388) for their own account – Smith’s Dock Co Ltd, North Shields as NUNTHORPE HALL.
2.4.1909: Registered at North Shields (SN90).
4.1909: Completed under Lloyds Special Survey. Sold to The Admiralty on completion of trials.
24.4.1909: Reported arrived Sheerness.
26.4.1909: North Shields registry closed “Ceased fishing”. Fitted out as a minesweeper and commissioned as HMS SEAMEW (Ad.No.2). Tender to HMS ACTŒON torpedo school ship Sheerness.
26.9.1909: Arrived Devonport for conversion to a mine surveyor. Based at Portland for minesweeping trials.
29.8.1912: At Aberdeen on instructional duties with HMS SEAFLOWER (Ad.No1), reverted as tenders to HMS ACTŒON torpedo school ship Sheerness.
1914: Based at Chatham/Sheerness training fishery reserve crews (RNR(T) section personnel).
1.1920: Renamed NUNTHORP HALL.
21.04.1920: By order of The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, offered for sale as lies at Milford by auction, Messrs C. W. Kellock & Co, London auctioneers.
4.5.1920: Sold by auction at Milford to Edward D. W. Lawford, Milford Haven for £5,000.
12.8.1920: Sold to Colin L. Mason, Cardiff (Atlantic Trawlers Ltd).
13.8.1920: Registered at London (LO393). Colin L. Mason designated managing owner.
11.1.1923 – 2.3.1923: Landing into Newport, Monmouthshire (Sk. Lear).
By 1924: Sold to Edward D. W. Lawford, Milford Haven. Edward D. W. Lawford designated managing owner.
25.10.1925: Sold to George Hindle, Wilpshire, Lancs & others. Joseph A. Taylor, Harold Taylor & Albert V. Thompson, Fleetwood designated managers.
8.12.1925: London registry closed.
9.12.1925: Registered at Fleetwood (FD78).
1.1926 – 10.1929: Landing regularly.
26.1.1926: At Fleetwood landed 120 boxes. There was a great shortage on the market with only four trawlers landing 573 boxes, principally hake (selected 100s per box).
17.1.1927: Homewards from the Faroe grounds (Sk.George Neave) in the afternoon when off the Isle of Man sighted a steamer of the Point of Ayre stationary with clouds of steam issuing from her funnel. Closed and found her to be the Liverpool registered steamer MEG MERRILIES (484grt/1896), Liverpool for Glasgow, disabled with dropped pistons, wrecking the engine room. In view of very strong ebb, connected and delivered to anchor off Ramsey.
18.1.1927: Arrived Fleetwood, landed 120 boxes from an eighteen day trip, realised £150, not enough to cover expenses, so salvage money would be very welcome.
8.1927: Trading as Islay Trawlers Ltd, Fleetwood.
5.10.1927: At Fleetwood Police Court, Thomas Etherington (49) trawler cook was fined 10s for disobedience whilst engaged to serve in the trawler. Ship had sailed out to the Wyre Light to await two crew members. Etherington refused to cook food for the crew and the skipper brought the ship back into Fleetwood the following day. In defence he said that he was ‘badly” and would cook when he had recovered. The trawler was not brought back because of him but because they were two hands short.
4.1.1928: At Fleetwood Police Court, George Gregson (21) was fined 30s and ordered to pay a £1 11 6d advocate’s fee, when he pleaded guilty to disobedience whilst engaged to join the ship. His failure to join resulted in a delay of over five hours until a substitute was found and taken out by boat at a cost of 30s to the Wyre Light where the trawler was waiting.
3.9.1928: Landed 275 boxes.
24/11/1928: Arrived on the morning tide and reported such unprecedented heavy weather that it took four days to reach Fleetwood. Passing the Butt of Lewis grounds the gear was shot but, upon hauling, they found what they believed to be an obsolete British mine. This was brought to port and handed over to the authorities.
13.12.1928: Reported that the trawler had been sold by Islay Trawlers Ltd to a newly formed company and is presently being fitted out for a voyage to Cape Town, South Africa.
24.3.1929 – 18.10.1929: Still fishing and landing into Fleetwood.
8.11.1929: Further reports that she has been sold to a fishing syndicate at Cape Town.
1930: Sold to Ephraim H. Hindle, Wilpshire, Lancs & others (Recorded in MNL but not in Fleetwood Register of Sea Fishing Boats).
6.1.1930: During the past few months a considerable amount of work has been done to the vessel at Fleetwood to make her suitable for a new fishing venture. An up-to date refrigerating plant has been installed in the fish room and it is expected that in the course of another week or so she will be on her way to the Canary Islands. The final details in connection with the venture are now being completed. As soon as the fish is caught it will be frozen and at the end of the trip landed and boxed up for despatch. A crew of Fleetwood men have been signed on for the voyage.
29.1.1930: Sailed Fleetwood for West of Scotland grounds; nineteen crew and a number of engineering representatives. The object of the trip is to try out the equipment under actual sea conditions. Fishing in the Minch hauled ten boxes of mixed fish which was gutted as usual and then passed to the fish room in which the plant is installed. The sterilising process is to remove all bacteria from the fish. Firstly, it is cleaned with sterilised water, and the crew work in air which has likewise been sterilised and then when in an oven, the fish is sprayed with brine water for five minutes. The brine is then run off into the bilges, the fish flooded again with brine water. They remain thus for about twenty minutes, then the water is returned to the circulatory system, and the freezing process begins. A ton of fish can be sterilised and frozen in an hour.
10.1.1930: Reported that the company that is buying the trawler has not yet been formed. The crew have not been selected. Interested parties will be meeting in the next ten days when everything will be fixed up.
4.2.1930: Arrived Fleetwood and landed catch. Some minor alterations have to be made in the plant, but it has already proved a great success. Total cost of equipping was in the region of £10,000. The trawler is destined to fish in tropical waters, and is to leave Fleetwood for Cape Town, in the near future. Preserving fish in hot temperatures has always been a great drawback, but with the new development it is expected to overcome all previous difficulties, thanks to this new British invention. The trawler has been purchased by a newly-formed company, most of the capital having been subscribed in South Africa.
10.5.1930: Sailed Fleetwood for Las Palmas, Canary Islands (Sk. William J Kaye); twelve hands all told including four Fleetwood men. To work out of the port and on landing, the catch will be transferred to a refrigerated steamer destined for the Continent and onward sale.
21.10.1930: Touched bottom when at anchor in Las Palmas outer harbour. Surveyed, no damage.
16.2.1931(regd): Sold to Islay Trawlers Ltd, Fleetwood. Harry Melling designated manager.
7.3.1931(regd): Sold to Cape Fisheries Ltd, London. Albert V. Thompson, Fleetwood designated manager.
5.7.1931: At Blackpool County Court the Judge granted a petition on behalf of James Albert Johnston, ship broker and coal factor, for the compulsory winding-up of Islay Trawlers Ltd. He was supported by five other creditors. Petition granted with costs.
19.12.1931: Islay Trawlers Ltd in Compulsory Liquidation. By Order of the Liquidator, Col. H. Parker, E. J. Reed & Sons, Preston sold by auction at Fleetwood, the whole of the ships stores and other effects owned by Islay Trawlers Ltd.
1932: Delete manager. Vessel laid up at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
16.3.1934: Reported that unfortunately the experiment ended in failure. It was difficult to locate fish and what was found was unsuitable, therefore the brine freezing plant was never properly tested under tropical conditions.
1934: Sold to Norwegian owners for conversion to dry cargo. Sale not completed.
8.8.1934: Fleetwood registry closed.
1935: No owner recorded.
19??: Sold to Rodriguez López, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Boiler and engine removed for further use. Laid up at Santa Cruz between the coal barges and over the years deteriorated. Without boiler and engine no buyers could be found.
1945: Sold to Eduardo Coll Diaz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Sailed Santa Cruz for Las Palmas in tow of ex steam yacht AGUILA de ORO (222grt/1877) for slipping, lengthening, modernisation, and fitting an oil engine. On completion registered at Santa Cruz de Tenerife as GINES CERDÁ. Fished the Canary-Saharan bank, landing at Las Palmas/Santa Cruz.
1945: Lengthened to 40,79m (133.8 ft) 230g 105n.
1945: Converted to motor trawler at Las Palmas, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Re-engined with 6-cyl oil engine by Motoren Augsburg Nürnberg A.G. (MAN), Nürnberg.
19??: Re-engined with 600bhp 8-cyl oil engine by La Maquinista Terrestre y Mar (MTM), Barcelona.
1960s: Sailed on the fishing grounds as mother ship with the last of the schooner and sloop rigged well boats.
1974: Broken up in the Fish Dock at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Click to enlarge image

HMT Seamew
Picture courtesy of The Mark Stopper Collection

Changelog
01/01/2009: page published. 4 updates since then.
30/10/2017: Removed FMHT watermark from image.
15/09/2020: Updated history.
01/12/2021: Updated history.
31/01/2024: Updated history.