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The Coastal Sparrows

At the beginning of the Second World War The ROYAL NAVAL PATROL SERVICE was established, with its Headquarters at HMS "Europa" - a "stone frigate" - the "Sparrow's Nest" at Lowestoft, and all those who passed through it have been "Sparrows from the Nest" ever since. The core of crew members came from the fishing communities, the numbers then being made up from RNR Reservists, ex-Merchant Seamen, and large numbers of "Hostilities Only" ratings - our Lower Deck included two University graduates and a Scottish Bank Manager ! - originally recruited into the Royal Navy and then seconded to the RNPS, or who, like me, had actually volunteered for transfer.

It was indeed a transfer - the RNPS was nothing like the Navy proper ! "Harry Tate's Navy" it was often called, and its crews' descent could be traced from the old Privateersmen, rather than from the seamen of Blake and Nelson. It was bound to be so - in such small ships, the rigid RN distinctions of rank and rating were just not possible - everyone had to "muck in" as required.

Where there WAS a direct connection with the Navy of old though, was in the living conditions. The ship I served in - HMS "Pearl" formerly the "Dervish" of Hull - was a 600-ton, 160-foot long, coal-burning distant-water trawler, designed to operate in the Arctic fishing-grounds with a crew of 12. As an "Asdic Trawler" escorting convoys and hunting U-Boats, we had 47 on board - 22 of us in the former fish-hold !
And there was no communication below deck - you had to carry your meals along the open deck from the coal-fired Galley right aft to the Mess Deck up for'ard, which meant that, even in normal English Channel and North Atlantic weather, they often arrived in a "modified condition with extra salt". And of course the freshwater tanks were quite inadequate for the much larger crew, so that the washing of person and clothes at sea was strictly forbidden - there were only 3 tin wash-basins, right up under the foredeck, anyway. In recompense for all this, the Admiralty - not noted for its beneficence - paid us "Hard Lying Money" at the rate of ninepence a day - but only for days actually at sea. That may not sound very much, but, with, for example, my Ordinary Telegraphist's pay standing at half-a-crown (two shillings and sixpence) a day, it was a considerable bonus.
Most trawlers were engaged in minesweeping, and that was what I expected to be doing when, at the end of my Telegraphist training, I volunteered for transfer to the RNPS. When I joined "Pearl" at Plymouth though, I found that the "Gem" Class trawlers were fitted out as Convoy Escorts, with heavy armament, Asdic, and primitive Radar ("RDF" then, before Americanization).
She carried an old 4" gun up for'ard (sweepers had only 12-pounders) , twin 20mm Oerlikons on either side of the bridge, a twin Vickers 路5 machine-guns down aft, twin 路303 Browning machine-guns on either side of the well-deck, 30 depth-charges on rails right aft,with throwers, port and starboard. Hence the 47 crew - and the huge quantity of ammunition stowed just below the main mess-deck !
The regular job was escorting the Coastal Convoys - in our case, the Portsmouth-Wales/ Wales-Portsmouth section, operating between Cowes Roads and Milford Haven and the Bristol Channel ports.
These Coastal Convoys have "slipped through the net" of History. The Atlantic and Mediterranean ones are well-known in story and documentary, but the Coastals are literally unknown, even to RN sailors who served on the ocean convoy routes. Yet they were absolutely vital to the survival of the nation and, later, to the invasion of Europe. For just one thing, the London River Power-Stations, supplying the National Grid, were all fuelled by Welsh coal, which had to be brought round daily, without interruption, in the fleet of "flat-iron" colliers, whose masts and funnels folded down to get under the Thames bridges. Also, in those pre-motorway days, much of the goods now on lorries was carried in a huge fleet of small coasters, and the Mulberry Harbour and the great flocks of Landing-Craft for D-Day didn't just spring up in the Solent - WE brought them there !

The impression has also been given that, once across the Mersey Bar, the Atlantic shipping was safe home. Far from it ! Many of these ships were en route for ports all round the British Isles, and it was the Coastal Convoy System which got them there - usually.
It operated rather like a "'bus service" A ship bound from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Hull (with Hell in between !) would be brought into Liverpool by an Atlantic Convoy. Next day, the Irish Sea Coastal would take her down to Milford Haven, we would take her on to Cowes Roads in the Wales-Portsmouth, the Channel East would deliver her to the Thames Estuary, and the East Coast take her up through "E-boat Alley" to the Humber. And in reverse on the outward journey.
The hazards were varied - U-boats in the Irish Sea, off the North Cornish coast and in the West Channel - E-boats and aircraft all along the South Coast and up round East Anglia, heavy guns covering the Straits of Dover - and mines everywhere. Also the Atlantic gales between Milford Haven and Land's End, and fog in the Channel.
The convoys themselves could constitute a hazard. Unlike the Ocean Convoys, where ships were grouped with those of similar size, speed and turning-circle, the Coastals contained the lot ! Liners converted to troopships, "Liberty Ships", tankers, "flat-iron" colliers, small coasters, and tiny, usually Dutch, "scoots" - all with different turning-circles and handling characteristics, especially in heavy weather. And, from 1943 on, "flights" of basically unseaworthy Landing-Craft, and tugs towing the huge, unwieldy concrete caissons which would form the "Mulberry Harbour" Getting such a collection through the three turns necessary to round Land's End in an Atlantic gale, sorted out after having to anchor because of fog, or to "reverse course" when warned of E-boats off the Lizard or Start Point, could be quite a problem.
There was also a "love-hate" relationship between many of the highly- independent - i.e. bloody-minded - Merchant skippers and the escorts. We had a black-list of persistent stragglers. Looking after one of these meant that an escort had to be detached from the convoy, her crew missing their night in port before starting back with the next one.

The Escort Group for one of these convoys should have been four Asdic Trawlers and one of the little "Hunt" Class destroyers, or an old " V and W", but often there would only be a couple of trawlers - sometimes only one ! The destroyers included ones which we had lent to our various Allies, and having to read spelled-out Polish names such as "Blyskawica", "Krakowiak"
and "Kujawiak" could be a problem for the Telegraphist.
The Merchant Ships had their radios sealed, so communication was only through the Escorts. If you missed any of a message -very easy when rolling 45掳 in a gale, with spray on the aerials (and sometimes a bucket between your knees ) - you couldn't ask for a repeat, since we could only switch on our transmitters in the direst emergency. Missing one could, quite literally, be fatal, so messages for us would be broadcast between two Shore Stations, such as Plymouth and Falmouth, and, if there was time, repeated back to give us a second chance.

When new enemy minefields were laid by
U-boats, E-boats or aircraft, and sweepers had cleared a passage, marking it with "Dan Buoys", the convoy would be got into a single line - with difficulty ! - and the junior Escort vessel would be ordered to lead the way. Mines could be set to go off at different times though - on Christmas Eve 1944, the big ore-carrier "Dumfries" was sunk off the Needles by one which the sweepers, two other ships, and "Pearl" had all just passed over. There was a considerable hazard from our own mines too. Huge defensive minefields had been laid all around the coasts, but gales caused individual mines to break loose and float about on the surface, almost invisible, and quite unable to discriminate between friend and foe. This happened very frequently off the North Cornish coast, and when one was spotted, it had to be sunk by rifle-fire. Accidentally hit one of the horns, and you needed new crockery !

The trawlers were "maids of all work", especially in very heavy weather when the long, narrow destroyers tended to "hog".
A regular "odd job" was to bring in one of our submarines from somewhere well west of Land's End. She would have signalled "ETA Plymouth xxxxx - friendly aircraft permitting", and we'd go out to meet her, so that she could come in on the surface in reasonable safety - even the RAF would realize that, with an accompanying trawler, she was "one of ours". Another was escorting Post Office Cable-Ships doing repairs to a submarine cable - not a nice job in the Channel, where you were both "sitting ducks". We lost our "chummy ship" "Ellesmere" that way, along with the cable-ship "Alert", off the Dodman, as late as February 1945.

Three Plymouth trawlers -"Cornelian", "Ellesmere" and "Pearl" - also went over on "D-Day" escorting the American force from Salcombe to "Utah" Beach, and then making 11 trips in all, escorting supply convoys to the beaches. Sorting out the hundreds of ships held up when the
"D +13" gale destroyed much of the Mulberry Harbour was a particular nightmare.
Then, during the winter of 1944-45, we escorted daily - or rather, nightly - convoys from Falmouth across to the American base at Granville. Until the night of March 9th. 1945 that is, when a German "commando raid" from the Channel Isles destroyed the docks, sank several ships, and even "cut out" one and took it back with them to Jersey ! Real "Hornblower" stuff !! We were very lucky - they sank the American PT boat right away, but somehow missed us, and the one ship which we got away to safety.

The Royal Naval Patrol Service also operated a wide variety of other craft -"Admiralty" trawlers, "built by the yard, with bow and stern stuck on" and very uncomfortable in heavy weather, drifters, Motor Minesweepers ("Mickey Mouses"), Brooklyn Yard Sweepers (BYMS) MFVs (Motor Fishing Vessels), Boom Defence Vessels, converted yachts etc. Its ships operated world-wide, in every theatre of war, and over 400 were lost - more than all the rest of the Navy put together.
Being such small vessels, many were lost with all hands, but that, in fact, was one of the attractions of the RNPS, and my main reason for volunteering. In the bigger RN ships you'd be below decks while in action, trapped behind watertight doors, there was the risk of horrible injuries and burns, and if you'd gone overboard there'd be oil on the water, perhaps burning too. None of those horrors in a little, coal-burning, trawler - if anything really serious happened you'd know very little about it.

And if you survived, you got your "Silver Badge". About the size of a thumbnail, and worn on the left cuff, it's worth a lot more than any Campaign Star. Those were issued wholesale, but you only got your Silver Badge after you had been actually at sea in a RNPS vessel for at least 6 months. Not something you part with ! When the odd Silver Badge turns up in a some future TV "Antiques Programme" though, it's unlikely that even the "expert" will understand the true significance of what is engraved on it. The background of the shield is a Boom Defence Net, surrounded by a Minesweeping Warp, and on it are two mines, and a shark transfixed by a marlin-spike. The Scroll carries the two inscriptions "M/S" (Minesweeping) and "A/S" (Anti-Submarine), and the whole is surmounted by a Naval Crown.
I was transferred to the Army in 1945 and wore mine on my Army uniform - to the consternation of the RSM of 1st.Royal Horse Artillery. Nothing he could do about it though - it's an award.

The minesweepers of the RNPS played a further vital part in the invasion of Europe, clearing the Scheldt so that the great port of Antwerp could be used as an advanced supply base. They came back down the river with the Commodore flying the signal "Channel now safe for straight-ringers" i.e regular Navy Officers (ours wore the "wavy" rings of the RNVR !)
Also, the sweepers continued in service for over a year after the War ended, clearing the vast defensive minefields, and getting the coastal waterways "back to normal"

No more Sparrows were hatched though, and the professionals, and most of the ships, went back to fishing - till the
"Cod Wars" destroyed the once-great distant-water fleets, and EU quotas finished off much of the fish. And of course, the coastal shipping has gone too. "We shall not see their like again"
A Reunion is held at Lowestoft every Autumn, but the numbers dwindle with each year - none of us is under 80 now. The "Sparrow's Nest" is a RNPS Museum, but with ever-fewer local Sparrows to man it, and no Television Documentary has ever been made. However, at the Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, a "convoy" of oak trees has been planted, each a named merchant-ship, with the escorts out on either flank. "Pearl" is among them - 12 of us from her crew were there for the planting - and they should be around for the next couple of hundred years. Unless there's an explanatory book there though, it's doubtful that anyone will realize that "Pearl" and some other escorts were, in fact, trawlers.
The Atlantic Convoys got their tribute later, in Nicholas Monsarrat's
"The Cruel Sea" , but no-one has thought to write about the RNPS and the "Coastals" in a similar way. During the First World War though, Rudyard Kipling wrote a couple of poems that apply just as accurately to the Second -

Minesweepers

Dawn off the Foreland - the young flood making,
Jumbled and short and steep -
Black in the hollows, and bright where its breaking -
Awkward water to sweep.
"Mines reported in the fairway -
Warn all traffic, and detain.
Send up "Unity" - "Claribel" - "Assyrian" -"Stormcock",and "Golden
Gain,"

Noon off the Foreland - the first ebb making,
Lumpy, and strong in the bight
Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking,
And the jackdaws wild with fright.
"Mines located in the fairway,
Boats now working up the chain -
Sweepers - "Unity" - "Claribel" - "Assyrian" - "Stormcock",and "Golden Gain."

Dusk off the Foreland - the last light going,
And the traffic crowding through,
And five damned trawlers, with their syreens blowing
Heading the whole review !
"Sweep completed in the fairway - no more mines remain.
Send back "Unity" - "Claribel" - "Assyrian" "Stormcock", and Golden Gain."

And the one which "says it all" as far as we surviving Sparrows are concerned -

The Changelings

O'er ever the battered liners sank,
With their passengers, to the dark,
I was head of a Walworth Bank,
And you were a grocer's clerk.

I was a dealer in stocks and shares,
You, in butters and teas,
And we both abandoned our own affairs
And took to the dreadful seas.

Wet, and worry about our ways -
Panic, onset and flight,
Had us in charge for a thousand days,
And a thousand-year-long night.

We saw more than the night could hide -
More than the waves could keep,
And - certain faces over the side,
Which do not go from our sleep.

We were more tired than words can tell,
As the pied ships fled by,
And the heaving mounds of the Western swell
Hoisted us, Heavens-high .......

Now there is nothing - not even our rank
To witness what we have been;
And I am returned to my Walworth Bank,
And you - to your margarine !

Well, we do have our Silver Badges, and a Royal Naval Patrol Service Medal was issued - but not until 50 years later, when the majority of those entitled to it were already dead !

The Royal Naval Patrol Service and the "Coastals" aren't even History - "Pearl" took part in the liberation of the Channel Isles, but wasn't mentioned in the accounts of the recent celebrations, just the destroyers.

Unless you remember some of this, and pass it on !

[LT/JX 358728 A.J.Yeatman O/Tel. HMS "Pearl" 1943-44-45]

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