Warlord's tanker built
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Warlord’s own tanker. A mini one with a length of some 50 meter / 165 ft. Vessels like that are not to be found in the books on ocean going merchant ships.
Tonnage of the ship would be less than 750 grt / 350 nrt.There had been many such vessels. Owned by companies that did coastal shipping they played an important role in the supply of the small harbors in peacetime and war.
No wonder that S-Boote attacked the East Coast convoys. The Atlantic and Mediterranean ones are well-known in story and documentary, but the Coastals are literally unknown. Mines, coastal U-Boote and planes added to the hazards.
We often read of Merchant skipper that liked to disobey the escort’s orders. That was even more common than on the Atlantic route. The radios got sealed, so communication was only via the escorts. If new minefields are expected the convoy formed in a single line, the Trawlers ahead with mine clearing equipment. Clearing and marking the lane with buoys. The convoy strung in a line inviting Schnellboote.The typical East Coast convoy had an escort of four ASDIC trawlers and a single Hunt class destroyer. But often there would only be a couple of Trawlers, sometimes just one. So if a small tanker was bound for a small harbor it was at best escorted by a single trawler.
I decided to do the model without the gun. Very small ships like that rarely got one if crewed by merchant sailors. RN had some water tankers of similar size, even they had normally just 20mm AA guns. Best defense of the minis was the size. Hard to hit with a torpedo.
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