Technical
Admiralty Number: 4244
Official Number: 139350
Yard Number: 887
Completed: 1919
Gross Tonnage: 324
Net Tonnage: 148
Length: 138.3 ft
Breadth: 23.7 ft
Depth: 12.7 ft
Built: Cochrane & Sons Ltd, Selby
Engine: 600ihp T.3-cyl by Charles D. Holmes & Co Ltd, Hull
History
20.12.1918: Launched by Cochrane & Sons Ltd, Selby (Yd.No.887) (“Mersey” class) for The Admiralty as JAMES McDONALD (Ad.No.4244).
5.2.1919: Forms for tender to purchase received by the Admiralty.
3.1919: Sold to Jutland Steam Trawling Co Ltd, Hull (Edward Cargill, manager).
9.9.1919: Completed as a fishing vessel.
16.9.1919: Registered at Hull (H80). Official No.139350.
20.10.1919: Registered at Hull as GRAND FLEET (H80).
29.5.1920: Sold to Jutland Amalgamated Trawlers Ltd, Hull (Edward Cargill, manager).
30.3.1929: Sold to The Crampin Steam Fishing Co Ltd (64/64), Grimsby.
5.4.1929: Hull registry closed.
6.4.1929: Registered at Grimsby (GY44).
6.4.1929: Herbert George Crampin, Cleethorpes appointed manager. Fitted for lining to pursue the Greenland halibut fishery.
3.1938: Sold to C. R. Mauritzen, Newbridge, Midlothian.
28.4.1938: Grimsby registry closed. Transferred to Danish flag.
5.10.1938: Arrived Leith from Spitsbergen having fished the summer season in Arctic waters. Landed salt fish.
21.10.1938: Registered at Leith (LH216).
29.3.1939: Registered at Leith as BARBARA ROBERTSON (LH216) (BoT Minute M/RG1114/39).
26.8.1939: Leith registry closed.
8.9.1939: Registered at Fleetwood (FD50).
17.9.1939: Sold to Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Fleetwood.
8.1939: Armed trawler under T124 Articles fitted with 12pdr gun.
9.12.1939: Sailed Hull for Icelandic grounds (Sk. A. E. Hall); eighteen crew. Outward in convoy with ADAM (FD65), CHILTERN (H660) and FORCE (FD100).
12.1939: In Seydia Fjord, Gunner Goodison put ashore ill.
28.12.1939: Homeward to Hull from Icelandic grounds. At about 2.10 am when 35 miles NW of the Butt of Lewis on a S by E heading, shelled by U-boat (U.30); abandoned vessel in boat but one man left behind (George E. Clark). At about 4.00 am trawler sunk by gunfire in position 58.54N 6.30W and after 14 hours in boat, sixteen survivors picked up by HMS ISIS (P.No.D87) directed to area by a Gladiator bi-plane; one man MPK. Survivors landed at North Scottish port. (Less than an hour after the sinking, U.30 had stopped the Swedish steamer HISPANIA (1337grt/1912) and asked them to pick up the survivors).
13.1.1940: Fleetwood registry closed “Vessel sunk by enemy action”.
(MPK – George Edward H. H. Clark (28), deckhand).
(James McDonald, AB (volunteer), age 24, b. Edmonton, London – VICTORY (SB105))
Click to enlarge image
S.T. Grand Fleet GY44
Picture courtesy of The Jeffrey Pullen Collection
Changelog
13/05/2012: Page published. 5 updates since then.
04/05/2015: Picture added.
08/08/2019: Updated information.