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was torpedoed and went down instantly, yet none of the other ships heard or saw anything. Northern Princess simply vanished. Five more trawlers would be lost in the next few months. Charlie Wines , the cook aboard St. Zeno, recalls the secrecy of his departure out of Belfast. Up to this time, St. Zeno had been running out of Belfast and Londonderry convoying in the Atlantic as far as Reykjavik. "I was on late Christmas leave and expecting an extension when I received the recall-so back I went to Belfast. I was told to victual for a three-week voyage. We ammunitioned and set off, but the crew had no idea where we were off to-the old man wouldn ' ttell anybody. We found ourselves steaming into St. John's, Newfoundland." One beautiful moonlit night near Cape Race the off-duty watch of HMS Northern Dawn were jolted awake by a sickening crash. Thinking "Torpedo!," they rushed on deck, only to look out over an immense field of pack ice. Northern Dawn had hit a submerged "growler" that was grinding against her hull. The ice cracked their ASDICdome and forced the ship into Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, for repairs. Several of the trawlers were damaged and all of them spent their first weeks in the US refitting in New York. The Americans did their best to make the trawler crews welcome, but often displayed what the British saw as an amazing naivete. As HMS St. Zeno tied up to a Boston wharf, a friendly Yankee voice called out asking where they were from . AdeckhandonSt.Zeno 's fo 'c'sleshouted: "From England! " "How did you get here?" asked the voice. After a momentary pause came the exasperated reply, "By bloody taxi! How the hell do you think?" By early April most of the Escort Force ships were on patrol out of naval bases along the East Coast. Still manned by British and Canadian crews, they were under temporary US Navy command. Thatdidn 't botherthe trawlermen one little bit. Imagine the feelings of a British seaman, enduring the seas of a freezing North Atlantic winter, faced with the probability of escort duty on the Murmansk run, suddenly finding himselfbasking in warm spring sunshine off the Carolinas with the prospect of shore leave in Charleston or Wilmington. With typical British understatement, one trawlerman recalled it as "quite a pleasSEAHISTORY68, WINTER 1993-1994
The fleet's mid-winter Atlantic passage was a difficult one. HMS Northern Princess simply vanished, presumed torpedoed, and others suffered damage. HMS Northern Dawn is shown here up a slipway at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia , after she hit a submerged growler while negotiating an Atlantic icepack. Northern Dawn was one of the f ew trawlers equipped with ASDIC, rh e underwarer defection device the US Navy called SONAR.
ant change." The trawlers were immediately assigned as escorts in the newly instituted convoy system. Coastal convoy ships moved primarily in daylight, hugging the shore, the escort vessels keeping visual and listening watch for prowling subs. Anti-submarine aircraft, which were becoming ever more numerous, were also on guard. The escorts took no chances. Anything that might be a sub was thoroughly hammered with depth charges. Sinkings dropped off dramatically and the Germans were forced to change tactics. Shallow water was taboo for U-boats. Even in 100 feet they could often be seen from the air. In less than 200 feet they had nowhere to hide when attacked.
Nonetheless, if they wanted targets, they had to come in close. The subs quickly developed their own system. During daylight, they lay quietly on the bottom offshore, resting their crews and conserving fuel. Surfacing with the darkness, they cruised to within a few miles of the coastline, seeking out stragglers and those few foolhardy captains who refused the protection of convoys. At night the merchantmen usually lay up in protected anchorages behind minefields and submarine nets, while their escorts patrolled offshore. The ports of Charleston , South Carolina, Wilmington and Morehead City, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia, were all links in the chain of safe anchorages. They also served as resupply bases forthe
HMS Welland on patrol offthe North Carolina coast.
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