The steel steam trawler Lord Dawson was launched from the yard of Cochrane and Son, Selby on 5th October 1929 for Pickering and Haldane of Hull. She measured 140.3′ x 24.0′ x 13.3′ and her tonnage was 346 gross tons, 135 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Amos and Smith Ltd delivering 96 registered horse power. Registered in Hull with fishing number H140 she operated out of that port fishing the east coast, northern isles and Icelandic fishing grounds until the outbreak of World War Two. At the start of the war she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to a Berberis class minesweeper (T44) and fitted with a four inch forward deck gun for her protection. She was assigned to Minesweeping Group 18 which was based in Grimsby and responsible for keeping the entrance to this port and a number of others on the North Sea coast safe from the ever present threat of the German mine laying submarine fleet.
HM Trawler Beech
Lloyds register 1939 (Lord Dawson)
In June 1941 she was assigned to a group tasked with keeping the Pentland Firth mine free. On the evening of 21st of that month Beech was at anchor off Scrabster. She was under the command of Lieutenant Arthur Patrick Cocks RNR who had a crew of ten men aboard. Around 2:30am in the early hours of the morning of 22nd she was attacked and bombed by a lone German aircraft, suffering a direct hit which sank the vessel killing all of the men aboard.
Admiralty casualty list
The wreck was reported in a position in Scrabster Bay, 147° from Little Head. As the wreckage lay in the entrance to Scrabster harbour it was dispersed in August 1941 to eliminate the danger to incoming shipping. Despite this there is a report of a fishery protection vessel fouling the wreckage in 1948 but after that the wreckage seems to have sunk into the sand as it remained hidden until 1999 when a magnetometer search revealed some wreckage in position 58° 36.634’N, 03° 31.982’W. The wreckage, which remains predominantly buried under the sand, lies in 13 metres with only the boiler standing proud of the sandy seabed. There are no more recent reports of divers on this wreck so current condition unknown.
