laststandonzombieisland

HM Trawler Kingston Amber (FY 211) seen battling her way through heavy seas on the Northern patrol, 1942.

Photo by LT R.G.G. Coote. LOC LC-USZ62-89354 via IWM

The 467-ton F/V Kingston Amber was completed in September 1937 and taken over by the Admiralty two weeks after the Germans marched into Poland in 1939. Her wartime armament included a single 4-inch QF gun, and two .50 cal Vickers. She rode shotgun on numerous convoys and survived the conflict. During World War II, the British Royal Navy requisitioned approximately 816 English and Welsh trawlers, along with about 200 steam drifters, using them for a wide array of ASW, coastal patrol, and mine-sweeping tasks.

Post-war, Kingston Amber was returned to her owner in February 1946, completing over a decade of commercial service before she was scrapped at Bruges in January 1959.

The Royal Naval Patrol Service numbered some 66,000 men during WWII, manning 6,000 assorted small vessels, including the above-mentioned trawlers. With some 200 RNPS trawlers lost during the conflict, at least 14,500 of these “Sparrows” gave their lives, and no less than 2,385 RNPS seamen remain unaccounted for in Poseidon’s embrace, having “no known grave but the sea.”