Lloyd’s Register's Contribution to Trawler Safety and Classification

Based on extracts from S.J. Wright, The Humber Outport: Lloyd’s Register in the Port of Hull since c.1760. PhD Thesis, University of Hull, 2024. (CC-BY)  

In 2018, a Lloyd’s Register Foundation insight report estimated that the global fishing industry saw around 24,000 fatalities annually. 1 This was, however, not a new phenomenon. Fishing, and particularly trawling, had long been one of the most dangerous occupations, with crews facing an industrial risk to life ‘considered to be twenty times greater than any other industrial risk in the world’. 2

Cover of LRF Insight Report into fishing safety. Available Online: https://www.lrfoundation.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-08/Insight%20Report%20on%20Safety%20in%20the%20Fishing%20Industry.pdf  

Surveying was the major contribution of Lloyd’s Register (LR) to trawling safety, providing regular checks on vessels as quality assurance for the UK trawling fleet. Like standard vessels, trawlers could be surveyed by the Society either during or after construction. Surveys during construction were a more intensive process, with Hull trawler Arctic Outlaw (formerly St. Bartholomew) inspected a total of 46 times between 18 May 1945 and 11 March 1946. Trawlers not built under survey were required to have a special initial examination, with all trawlers then put through regular post-construction surveys, occurring either annually or at specified points in a vessel’s lifespan. Additionally, trawlers were also ‘required to be subjected to the periodical special surveys, designated No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3’, taking place at ‘4 years, 8 years and 12 years respectively from the date of build’. 3

Extract from last page of Steel Trawler Report for Arctic Outlaw, then known as Saint Bartholomew, taken from LRF Ship Plans and Survey Reports collection. 

Reference: LRFHEC, LRF-PUN-015505-015512-0009-R, Ship Plans and Survey Reports, Documents for the Arctic Outlaw (Formerly St. Bartholomew/Stella Arcturus) Survey Report for St. Bartholomew, 1946.

In the pursuit of safety, LR surveys helped to ensure consistency in the seagoing quality of the nation’s trawling fleet and were underpinned by the development of rules and regulations tailored to the industry. However, the Society ‘took a cautious approach’ to the introduction of new rules ‘to sustain the integrity of classification, delaying the issue of definitive rules until sufficient experience had been accumulated’ by LR. 4 The first notable reference to trawlers did not appear until the 1884-1885 edition of the standard rules, and this was limited to the specification and scale of a trawler’s equipment.5 Indeed, trawlers and other fishing vessels continued to be assessed as standard ships until the publication of a unique trawler rule book in 1927.

Between 1927 and 1971, there were at least seven revisions of the rules for trawlers, with the latter two arriving in the immediate aftermath of the Triple Trawler Tragedy. These amendments included the introduction of stern trawlers, a revolutionary design that, by the end of the 1970s, had a safety record that was ‘considerably better than on side trawlers’.6 Stern-freezer trawlers drew in their catch through the stern which not only aided vessel stability, but also meant that hauling the trawl, a previously ‘dangerous and strenuous exercise’ of man-handling over the side, could now be done ‘by winch alone’.7 

Cover of 1938 LR Rules and Regulations for the Construction of Steel Trawlers – Own Photograph.

Reference: Lloyd’s Register, Rules and Regulations for the Construction and Classification of Steel Trawlers. London: Lloyd’s Register, 1939.

The inclusion of stern trawler rules in the 1969 LR trawler regulations was perhaps the most notable rule change since 1939. However, the caution of the Society towards new technology hampered its impact. The 1969 rules featured only three regulations targeted at stern trawlers, alongside a statement that the new design should follow the existing trawler guidance.8 Given that the first stern trawler had been introduced to the Hull fleet nine years prior in 1961, one might have expected a more detailed set of regulations, but no such advancements arrived.

Photograph of Lord Nelson, Hull’s first stern trawler. Copyright of Hull Bullnose Heritage Group.

Reference: Hull Bullnose Heritage, H.330 Lord Nelson Available Online: https://hullbullnoseheritagegroup.co.uk/ships_records/lord-nelson/#&gid=1&pid=11

Taking the firms listed in Micheal Thompson’s trawler fleet lists and cross-referencing them alongside the register books of the Society reveals the widespread presence of LR across the industry in the major trawling port of Hull. (see Table)

Percentage of Hull Trawler Fleet built under Lloyd’s Register Survey (LRS)

Source: Thompson, Hull’s Side-Fishing Trawling Fleet; Thompson, Hull & Grimsby Stern Trawling Fleet; Lloyd’s Register, Register Books, 1900-1978. 

93.8% of Hull trawlers identified by Thompson were built under LR survey and classed by LR. Only Eton Fishing Company and Oddsson & Company, both small trawling operations with only five and three vessels respectively, had below 80 per cent of their fleets built under the watch of the Society’s surveyors. Every Hull company with a fleet of ten or more trawlers had the vast majority built under LR survey, with only three having a rate of less than 90 per cent. Indeed, half of the firms had 100 per cent of their fleets built under LR survey and classed by the Society thereafter. One of Hull’s most famous trawler companies, the Boyd Line, had all of its 30 trawlers classed by the Society.9 Only two Boyd Line trawlers were not built under LR survey, the Arctic Buccaneer and Arctic Galliard, and they were omitted because of their novel design. Upon her arrival in Hull, the Arctic Buccaneer was ‘the biggest trawler to join the British fleet’ and her sister ship, the Arctic Galliard, was also built to the exact same specifications.10 As a result, they were not surveyed during construction and, although recognised as 100A1-quality stern trawlers, were awarded a “class contemplated” mark in the register books.

Photograph of Arctic Corsair, taken by Sam Wright in October 2021.

One of Boyd Line Trawlers, Arctic Corsair on its penultimate voyage from Alexandra Dock to Dunston’s Shipyard, Hull in October 2021. The Corsair has undergone extensive repair and refurbishment as part of Hull Maritime, a Hull City Council/National Heritage Lottery project celebrating Hull’s maritime history. Find out more here: https://maritimehull.co.uk/

For the vast majority of trawlers, therefore, the Society was an ever-present companion, surveying and monitoring throughout their operational lives and ensuring that consistent standards were maintained on Hull’s trawling fleet, an important role in the pursuit of safety. However, despite its high level of engagement with the trawling industry, the impact of LR’s work on trawlers was no doubt hindered by the cautious approach taken to the development of unique and detailed rules and regulations targeted specifically at the industry. LR’s own rules and regulations for trawlers, which were largely based on the standard rules for steel ships, did not provide enough adequate detail to be seen as the definitive rules and regulations for trawler construction across the industry. Consequently, other organisations stepped in to fill the gap, the White Fish Authority using LR classification as a baseline indicator of vessel quality on which its own set of rules and regulations could expand and cater to the specific needs and demands of the industry.