THE CALL TO ARMS 



/., of Fleetwood; Assyrian, of Grimsby, and Nun- 

 thorpe Hall, of North Shields, which were then act- 

 ing as tenders to the torpedo school-ship Actmon, at 

 Sheerness, to be renamed Seaflower, Sparrow, 

 Spider and Seamen-. In the official descriptions 

 these vessels, when actually added to the Navy, were 

 described as of 550 and 500 tons and 400 indicated 

 horse-power, which made them look much more for- 

 midable than the S3 T stem of calculating tonnage and 

 horse-power prevailing in relation to fishing vessels. 



This nucleus was soon enlarged ; more vessels of 

 the same type were acquired and added to the Navy, 

 being originally described as " miners," and num- 

 bered, and afterwards called Special Service Vessels. 

 Later, however, when the nucleus had grown to a 

 fleet, a definite list of " trawlers commissioned " 

 was published, and this showed that in the middle 

 of August, 1914, there were 107 of these vessels in 

 commission. In addition to these craft there were 

 eight obsolete torpedo-gunboats — the Circe, Jason, 

 Speedy, Leda, Gossamer, Speedwell, Seagull and 

 Skipjack, which were specially fitted out for mine- 

 sweeping purposes, as well as other vessels as need 

 arose and experience dictated. Amongst the mine- 

 layers were three vessels of about 2,000 tons each, 

 and of high speed, which had capacity for 400 naval 

 mines in two cases and 300 in the other. 



In the earliest stages of the war the mine-sweep- 

 ing fleet was manned by the Trawler Section, con- 

 sisting at that time of some 140 skippers and 1,100 

 men ; but this was the mere skeleton of the gigantic 



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