Armed trawler Nelson
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | Nelson |
| Launched: | 1905 |
| In service: | 1915-1917 |
| Fate: | sunk 15 August 1917 |
| Notes: | Converted to armed merchantman at Lowestoft |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | armed smack |
| Tonnage: | 61 gross tons |
| Propulsion: | sail |
| Armament: | 1 × 3 pounder naval gun |
Armed trawler Nelson was a British auxiliary warship which served during World War I. She was built in 1905 as the fishing smack G&E, operating from Lowestoft and registered as LT 649. In 1915 she was armed for defence against U-boat attack, and fought several actions against them. She was sunk in action on 15 August 1917.
G&E was a 61 ton trawling smack, built and registered at Lowestoft in 1905. Prior to the First World War she had an uneventful career as part of the fishing fleet there, operating out into the North Sea fishing grounds.
In 1915, as part of the Imperial German Navy's U-boat campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare German U-boats had started to attack British trawlers (which had previously been protected by the 1907 Naval Convention) in the North Sea. In response to this, fishermen had requested weapons for self-defence. G&E was one of these vessels, being equipped with a 3-pounder gun and assigned a naval rating as gunner. In this manner she entered service in August 1915.
G&E’s first action came on 11 August 1915, just three days after entering service as an auxiliary. While engaged in fishing off the Suffolk coast G&E was attacked by a German U-boat, later identified as UB-6. The U-boat approached G&E, intending to sink her by boarding and placing bombs (the early UB boats had no deck gun, and their commanders would not want to waste a torpedo on such a small target; sinking fishing boats in this way was the usual method used); when she was in range, G&E opened fire with her deck gun, scoring several hits on the conning tower. The U-boat quickly crash-dived, and G&E’s crew assumed they had sunk her, as did the Admiralty, who credited G&E with a successful "kill". However UB-6 was able to return to base; the damage to the conning tower was not fatal, as it was not part of the pressure hull, but merely a superstructure.
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