One of the crew makes his way from the bridge down to the main deck of HMT NORTHERN SKY. The trawler is pitching and rolling at slow speed along her patrol lines. There is a slight sea running and she ships water continually, but this is mild weather for trawlers. Official Royal Navy photograph by Lt. R.G.G. Coote, courtesy of the Imperial War Musuem.
14 steel hulled, coal fired fishing trawlers were built on order in Germany for a London company which could only get blocked credits out of Nazi Germany by using the money to buy something in Nazi Germany. So the company bought trawlers, each one christened with the first name of ‘”Northern.” Hence they became known as “Northern Class trawlers” although they were not purpose built for the Royal Navy.
HMT Northern Pride circa toward the end of the war. After many years at sea, the rough wear on the ship is obvious.
HMT Northern Pride was a built in 1936 by Deschimag, Germany. taken over by the admiralty in August 1939. returned to her owner in November 1945. and scrapped at Gateshead in 1964. Photo and caption courtesy of harwichanddovercourt.co.uk/warships/trawlers/
All 14 were requisitioned by the Admiralty and refitted as mine sweepers and later several were refitted as convoy rescue ships. After being taken-over by the Royal Navy, each was designated with the prefix HMT–His Majesty’s Trawler. These were robust ships and many served as rescue and escort ships on the Murmansk run through the Arctic Sea as well as in the North Atlantic. They swept for mines, rescued people and had enough armaments to give a respectable account of themselves.
Depending on their operational schedule, they would “de-ammunition” the ship before a boiler clean or a refit since the navy did not want the ship filled with live ammunition while it was being worked on.
