Arfon Location: 7 miles south of Worbarrow Bay When the Arfon was built in 1908 in Goole for the Pattern Steam Trawling Co of Milford in South Wales, she was designed for trawling, not for war. A 227-ton steel ship, she was 120ft long with a 21ft beam and 11ft draught. Like her sisters, she was worked hard fishing almost every day until World War 1.
The Navy requisitioned her, fitted her with a gun and put her to work from Portland with several other trawlers of her type. Their main task was to sweep German mines laid by the
UC-class of minelaying U-boats from the inshore shipping lanes off Dorset. Arfon swept mines for nearly three years until she sank rapidly on 30 April 1917 after hitting a mine and 9 of her crew perished. A full wreck tour can be found here: WRECKTOUR:88 The Arfon |
|