Deep sea trawlers

The deep sea trawler must be a seaworthy vessel that can battle against North Atlantic gales throughout the year and stand up to the cold, hard weather experienced in the Arctic Circle during the winter months. There are two main reasons why the majority of British owners and skippers still prefer steamships: (1) reliability; <2) because fishing is often carried on in forty and fifty degrees of frost (-20 to -30 C.) and a liberal supply of hot water and steam must be available to prevent ice forming in dangerous quantities on the superstructure, fishing gear, etc. But a number of diesel vessels have been built and are fitted with an auxiliary steam toiler. Altogether, more than one hundred deep : sea trawlers have been built in Great Britain since the World War II.

The vessels operate on grounds stretching from the Davis Straits, Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Greenland in the west, Iceland, Bear Island, Seahorse Island in the north and Kolveu Island and Nova Sembla in the east. The average distance to and from the grounds is 1,600 sea miles and fishing is continued throughout the year.

Dimensions of the vessels vary from 160 to 190 ft. {48.8 to 57.9 m.) between perpendiculars, 29 to 32 ft. {8.8 to 9.75 m.) beam and 14 to 17 ft. (4.3 to 5.2 m.) moulded depth. All owners would like a speed much in excess of that economically obtainable at present, but speed is somewhat dependent on the length of the vessel. All would like a speed of at least 12 J knots and most of the post-war deep-sea vessels do attain loaded speeds of 12 J to 13$ knots. Engine power, according to the size and displacement of ship, varies from 900 to 1,400 continuous b.h.p.

The British owner requires a winch hauling speed in excess of 250 ft. (76 m.) per minute and many of the post- war ships are heaving at more than this speed. It means installing a very powerful winch, developing from 200/ 350 h.p. at the winch shaft, depending on size of ship and trawling conditions.

Most British deep sea trawlers have two direction finders, one for navigation and one for locating other ships, and nearly all of them have radar, with ranges varying from 25 to 40 miles. This aid is invaluable when fishing in foggy weather amongst ice. It also assists the skippers with navigational and fishing activities, particularly in fog and snow, and in the winter months in the northern hemisphere when there is over 20 hours darkness in midwinter. Some vessels are now fitted with the Fischlupe instrument for detecting shoals of fish and some have electric logs and an electrical instrument to tell the skipper how much trawl warp he has got out when paying away, fishing or hauling in.