Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - The White Funnel Fleet during Wartime . . .

The period between the wars was a good time for the Campbell's White Funnel Steamers on the Bristol Channel as may be seen from this image of the 'Glen Usk' leaving Penarth for Cardiff one Saturday in late May 1939, but the world was about to change forever. [313] [314]

War with Germany was declared on the 3rd September that year. Chris Collard writes 'The conversion of the White Funnel steamers for minesweeping began within a week of their being requisitioned.' A memorandum book summarises their movements : -

Sunday 17th September 1939

'Brighton Belle' (Capt. Findlay Brander). To Cumberland Basin (Bristol) at 07.45. Left at 09.35 for Penarth Dock. All officers put ashore after arrival. Penarth Pontoon Co. doing alterations.

Monday 18th September 1939

'Glen Usk' (Capt. Bernard Hawken). Left basin at 10.00 for Penarth Dock. Penarth Pontoon Co. doing alterations.

Chris provides an explanation of what work was eventually likely to have been undertaken as part of the refitting of these steamers at the Chas. Hill's yard at Bristol, the Mountstuart Dry Dock Co. at Cardiff, an unspecified yard at Milford Haven and at the Penarth Pontoon Company.

'What was not known about the German magnetic mines was their polarity - whether they worked in a vertical or horizontal magnetic field set up by the metal-hulled ships. But good fortune came Great Britain's way when a German aircraft accidentally dropped a number of magnetic mines too close to the shoreline at Shoeburyness, in the Thames estuary on 22 November 1939.'

Having been recovered the polarity of the mines was established and it was found that ship's hulls could be neutralised by passing an electrical current through cables fitted around the hull. As you could imagine, paddle steamers posed their special challenges due to their paddle boxes. Chris continues : -