The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a branch of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

active during both the First and Second World Wars. The RNPS operated many small auxiliary vessels such as

naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built ...

s for anti-submarine and

minesweeping Minesweeping is the practice of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that ...

operations to protect coastal Britain and

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

History

The Royal Naval Patrol Service has its origins in the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when the threat of mine warfare was first realized by the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...

. The pre-war Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, is credited with recommending the use of

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

trawlers for minesweeping operations following visits he made to various East Coast Ports in 1907. Grimsby, with its impressive docklands and trawler fleet was seen as ideal, with the Commander-in-Chief arguing that the fishing fleet would be inactive in times of war as fishing grounds became war zones.Ministry of Information, ''His Majesty's Minesweepers'', London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1943 It was also thought that trawlermen would be more skilled than naval ratings with regards to the handling of the sizeable warps and winches that would be required for mine sweeping as they were already accustomed to using them with the working of the trawl. The Admiralty Minesweeping Division remained active throughout the remainder of World War I until the end of the war when the trawlers were returned to their owners to resume fishing operations and the division was disbanded. The need for a skilled minesweeping force was recognised to be a part of modern naval warfare and the Royal Navy later commissioned one flotilla of fleet minesweepers for the instruction of ratings and junior officers. Three trawlers were then added to the group along with the re-introduction of training in the Trawler Section of the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

and, under the new name of the Royal Naval Patrol Service courses in training began at Portland. As tensions mounted in the years before the Second World War training intensified for officers and ratings and experiments and developments in sweeping methods and equipment were carried out, including improvements made to the Oropesa Sweep, named after the trawler that first tried the method in 1918. HMS Europa (Lowestoft)

In the summer of 1939 the Admiralty purchased 67 trawlers with a further 20 newly constructed and at the outbreak of World War II every available minesweeper of the Royal Navy and Royal Naval Patrol Service was at her war station. HMS ''Europa'', usually known as ''Sparrow's Nest'', became the Central Depot of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, located at Lowestoft, the most easterly point of Great Britain, and then the closest British military establishment to the enemy until decommissioned in 1946. The

Lowestoft War Memorial Museum The Lowestoft War Memorial Museum is a museum located in Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk. It is housed in the World War II headquarters of the Royal Naval Patrol Service in Sparrows Nest Gardens in the north of the town. The museum ...

in the town is housed in the old Royal Naval Patrol Service headquarters building. Grimsby once again proved its worth in service to minesweeping, becoming the largest minesweeper base in Britain, and making possible the clearing of 34,858 mines from vital sea lanes by the brave men of the sweepers.

Harry Tate's Navy

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The advantages of using small ships for minesweeping and other duties had been recognised in the First World War and many of the crews of the peacetime fishing fleets had been encouraged to join the Royal Naval Reserve. Because the majority were Reservists the RNPS became a "Navy within a Navy". Because it used out-dated and poorly armed vessels, such as requisitioned trawlers crewed by ex-fishermen, the RNPS came to bear a number of unofficial titles that poked fun at it, such as "

Harry Tate Ronald Macdonald Hutchison (4 July 1872 – 14 February 1940), professionally known as Harry Tate, was an English comedian, who performed in the music halls, in variety shows, and in films. Career Born in Lambeth, the son of a Scottish tea m ...

's Navy", " Churchill's pirates" and "Sparrows". Because the peacetime crews became Naval seamen together they developed a special camaraderie. This camaraderie continued in the Service throughout World War II, even though by the end most RNPS members were "hostilities only" who had had little connection with the sea before the war. The Royal Naval Patrol Service suffered over 250 lost vessels, more than any other branch of the Royal Navy Because of the dangers and losses faced by the men of the Royal Naval Patrol service, they were honoured in a statement made by Churchill and by a unique silver badge, worn on the sleeve of the serviceman's uniform, that was awarded to those who served six months or more in the RNPS.

Operations

The RNPS fought in all theatres of the war, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, involved in convoy duty, minesweeping and anti-submarine work. Most particularly they kept the British coast clear of the mines that were wreaking havoc with merchant ships. One RNPS member, Lieutenant Richard Stannard won the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

while in command of the Hull trawler ''Arab'' in the Namsos campaign.

Boats of the RNPS

The fighting fleet of the RNPS consisted of a range of vessels. In the days prior to World War II the

Grimsby class sloop The ''Grimsby''-class sloops were a class of 13 sloops-of-war laid down between 1933 and 1940. Of these, eight were built in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy, four in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one for the Royal Indian Navy. ...

was used in mine sweeping and anti-submarine operations. This class is named after the port that was first recommended for use in minesweeping with its trawler fleet in 1907 by Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet Admiral Lord Beresford. In 1933 four of the new

Halcyon-class minesweeper The ''Halcyon'' class was a class of 21 oil-fired minesweepers (officially, "fleet minesweeping sloops") built for the British Royal Navy between 1933 and 1939. They were given traditional small ship names used historically by the Royal Navy a ...

s were laid down, regarded as 'fast sweepers'. They were 20 ft shorter than the Grimsby Class as the need for small vessels of shallow draught was recognised as crucial for working in minefields. By 1939, with the threat of war imminent, the more economically and rapidly built 'whale catcher'

Flower-class corvette The Flower-class corvetteGardiner and Chesneau 1980, p. 62. (also referred to as the ''Gladiolus'' class after the lead ship) was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submar ...

s were built. With war now a certainty, the Admiralty expanded minesweeping fleets by purchasing 67 trawlers and ordering a further 20 trawlers to be purpose built, recognising their ideal suitability for sweeping. Hundreds more vessels would be requisitioned by the Admiralty as the war continued and more purpose built vessels were developed, including specially designed timber-hulled Motor MineSweepers (MMS class) that would be better protected from the threat of magnetic mines.

References

;Notes ;Reading List
Brown, James
(1994
'' Harry Tate's Navy: One Man's Story of the Royal Naval Patrol Service.''
* Featherbe, F.C. (1994

* Featherbe, F.C. (1996) ''More Tales from Churchill's Pirates: Royal Naval Patrol Service, 1939–1945, the Veterans' Stories.'' * Lund, Paul and Ludlam, Harry (1971) ''The Trawlers go to War''

Royal Naval Patrol Service Booklist

External links