She was a 95 ton wooden steam drifter, typical of the type at some 89 feet long and 20 feet beam. More info here. Drifters were built in both wood and steel. A drawing of a typical armed drifter is shown above. A list of WW2 requisitioned drifters and trawlers can be found here.
Harvest Reaper
By June 1940 Harvest Reaper was on minesweeping duty at Belfast Lough with temporary skipper W Smith RNR. Also at Belfast were minesweeping drifters - HMD Gloamin (Ty Sk D Main RNR) and HMD Jewel (Ty Sk G G Stone RNR). A photo of the Gloamin (FR96) in peacetime is below:
Gloamin FR96
The crew of the Harvest Reaper would have been made up of the skipper, together with coxswain, 1st and 2nd engineers, one cook, 2 stokers,1 leading seaman, 2 seamen, one wireless operator, one signalman and one gun layer, a total of thirteen.
Crew of the Harvest Reaper. My father is kneeling at the front, centre.
Six Pounder gun
After conversion to an armed drifter the boat would have extra accommodation for the increased number of seamen. The drawing below shows bunks where fish would have been stored.
Minesweeping was a dangerous and stressful activity. During the course of the war 32 Royal Navy minesweepers were lost, and over 250 RNPS trawlers and drifters. Belfast was no exception. On the 18 May 1941 HMD Jewel, hit a mine off Belfast Lough. The following is an account by Seaman Robert Thomas, from Trawlers Go To War by Lund & Ludlum (foulsham 1971).
'It was a Sunday, and we were duty ship. At about 2 P.M. the quayside telephone started ringing. The sentry who should have been on the quay was on the messdeck, and the rest of the seamen were in their bunks. An argument started between them and the sentry as to who should answer the phone, which kept on ringing. Eventually a young Scotsman with more imagination than the rest said it might be important and dashed up on deck to answer it. He returned with a message that there had been an explosion down Belfast Lough.
As duty ship we steamed out to investigate, but when we reached the scene all that remained on the surface was some floating wreckage and a lifebelt bearing the name of the drifter Jewel, an inshore minesweeper. She had gone up on a mine. In among the wreckage was the body of her young sub lieutenant; we found no survivors. Ironically, one of Jewel's Patrol Service crew had only just joined her; he'd been sent to recuperate at a quiet base after harassing time minesweeping at Dover.
'Soon after we returned to harbour the quayside phone rang again and this time I answered. A woman's voice asked if she could speak to the Sub Lieutenant of one of our mineweepers. I told her that his ship was at sea, which was true enough. The Jewel would never return, and the Sub Lieutenant was lying on our deck, his broken body covered with a blanket.'
Seaman Robert Thomas, HMT Friesland
An old film from WW1
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) has an old film of minesweepers in WW1. The equipment might have changed by WW2, but the same old drifters were once more put to use. So activity on board would have looked much the same (except that there would have been fewer moustaches!). There is a link to the film here
A cook's life
It wasn't so easy in the cramped galley which would have been something like this
In January 1942 As duty ship we steamed out to investigate, but when we reached the scene all that remained on the surface was some floating wreckage and a lifebelt bearing the name of the drifter Jewel, an inshore minesweeper. She had gone up on a mine. In among the wreckage was the body of her young sub lieutenant; we found no survivors. Ironically, one of Jewel's Patrol Service crew had only just joined her; he'd been sent to recuperate at a quiet base after harassing time minesweeping at Dover.
'Soon after we returned to harbour the quayside phone rang again and this time I answered. A woman's voice asked if she could speak to the Sub Lieutenant of one of our mineweepers. I told her that his ship was at sea, which was true enough. The Jewel would never return, and the Sub Lieutenant was lying on our deck, his broken body covered with a blanket.'
Seaman Robert Thomas, HMT Friesland
An old film from WW1
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) has an old film of minesweepers in WW1. The equipment might have changed by WW2, but the same old drifters were once more put to use. So activity on board would have looked much the same (except that there would have been fewer moustaches!). There is a link to the film here
A cook's life
It wasn't so easy in the cramped galley which would have been something like this
WW1 Galley and cook
Imagine cooking when the sea was a bit rough! Note the guard rail round the stove to try to stop pots sliding off. I suspect tinned corned beef and beans was often the meal of the day.The minesweeping force at Belfast comprised LL Drifters – Gloamin, Harvest Reaper, Refraction, and Tritonia. The LL refers to the use of electric pulses to detonate magnetic mines. There is more information on this at minesweepers.org.
As far as I know Harvest Reaper remained at Belfast throughout the war, so there's a good chance she appears in the photo below, taken in 1944. She would be one of the small boats near the shore, just above the pier.
Belfast Lough (from www.wartimeni.com)
Other than the above, there are no other mentions of the Harvest Reaper that I can find. Drifters were also used for Harbour service, maintaining booms, buoys, and similar duties. There is interesting online info with drawings and specifications on the WW1 armed drifters and trawlers here.
Sister ships to the Harvest Reaper built by Herd and Mackenzie were: Lizzie West (BF213), Loranthus (BCK3) and John Herd (FR149). A list can be found here.
In WW2, HMD Lizzie West served as an auxiliary patrol vessel, and HMD John Herd as a harbour service vessel.
In WW2, HMD Lizzie West served as an auxiliary patrol vessel, and HMD John Herd as a harbour service vessel.
Lizzie West as BF213
John Herd as BF94
On delivery, post WW1, these three boats were specified as having a displacement of 100 gross tons, 43 net tons, and a length of 87.0', with a 20.0' beam, and a draught of 10.2'. Their engines were an 18 inch triple expansion type, of 43 nominal horse power, by Yeaman and Baggeson of Dundee. They had a top speed of 9kts and one 6 pounder gun.
Some more pictures of drifters
Herring Drifters heading out from Aberdeen
Model of the Osprey WW1 armed drifter
Detail of the bridge
Loranthus (BCK3) and Daisy Bank (BF 393). Painting by Jim Tait
WW1 admiralty armed drifter LT477
A typical WW1 armed drifter
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