WILLIAM BUTLER
Shipbuildervessel built by
Hall, Russell & Company, Limited
(Aberdeen, Scotland, 1864 - 1992)
Owner
Admiralty
Date18 October 1917
Object NameADMIRALTY TRAWLER
MediumSTEEL
ClassificationsShip
Dimensionslength 115 3/12' x breadth 22 1/12' x depth 13'
gross tonnage: 203 ton
gross tonnage: 203 ton
Object numberABDSHIP002320
Keywords
Yard Number: 619.
Fate: wrecked on North Head, Peterhead, 2 March 1928..
Propulsion: Steam
Description: Strath Class admiralty trawler, screw, steel, armament 1 x 12 pdr.
Owners:
1917: Completed for the Lord Commissioners for the Admiralty. Admiralty no. 3629.
1920: Irish Tr. Co. Ltd, Larne. Owned later by J. M. Davidson, Aberdeen.
1926: R. W. Lewis, Aberdeen.
(Gerald Toghill (2003), "Royal Navy Trawlers, Part One: Admiralty Trawlers" (Maritime Books, Liskeard), p. 191)
General History:
"A 'Strath' class trawler built for the Admiralty in 1917, the WILLIAM BUTLER was one of some 500 trawlers built to replace war loss ships and to maintain the nation's fishing industry...
She was returning from a week long fishing trip on the Scourie Bank, off the West Coast of Scotland, with haddock and cod, when she ran aground in fog on the North Head, close to Peterhead Harbour entrance. The local life-saving rocket brigade attended the wreck, setting up the apparatus on the deck of a derelict crane barge which had been wrecked some years earlier. From here they successfully fired a line over the trawler, a breeches buoy was rigged and all the survivors were brought safely ashore".
(Richard and Bridget Larn (1997), “Shipwreck Index of the British Isles” (Lloyd’s Register, London), vol. 4)
