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The Grimsby trawler GY.194 'Derby County' in 1947, its proud name showing on the vessel's prow

ON THE OPENING DAY OF THE 1933-34 FOOTBALL SEASON, DERBY COUNTY OFFICIALLY LENT ITS NAME TO A GRIMSBY FISHING VESSEL. HERE PETER SEDDON TRAWLS THE MARITIME ARCHIVES TO LAND A FASCINATING STORY.

Derby County were one of the First Division’s most stylish clubs in the early 1930s. Renowned international players like Sammy Crooks, Tommy Cooper, Jack Barker, Jack Bowers, Dally Duncan and Hughie Gallacher, made them a great side to watch.

As such, it was both a surprise and a disappointment that ‘The Rams’ won no trophies in this pre-war heyday, but the club was otherwise honoured in the most singular and unexpected fashion. On the opening day of the 1933-34 football season, a steam-powered trawler named ‘Derby County’ made its maiden voyage.

The idea of naming a fishing fleet after successful football teams belonged to John Marsden, later knighted for his services to the shipping industry. In 1901 Marsden joined the ailing board of a Grimsby-based trawler company, changed its name to Consolidated Fisheries Ltd., and set about a major expansion. By the 1930s they had a fleet of nearly 150 trawlers landing regular catches at Grimsby and Lowestoft in the days when the British fishing industry truly flourished.

Competition was intense, so in July 1933 Marsden hit on the football link as a means of sparking friendly rivalry between the trawler skippers. The idea was to run a League Table based on each trawler’s total catch for the season. Only First Division clubs were honoured initially - ‘Arsenal’ was first into operation on 3 August 1933, quickly followed by ‘Aston Villa’ and then ‘Derby County’.

The good ship ‘Derby County’ was built in Middlesbrough by the Smiths Dock Company Ltd. at a cost of £19,864. She was registered as GY 514 on 29 July 1933, completed on 15 August, trialled on the river Tees the following day, and successfully delivered to Grimsby on the evening of Tuesday 22 August.

Weighing 399 tons, measuring 155 feet in length, and powered by steam, ‘Derby County’ was no ‘Queen Mary’, but a trim little vessel with dogged character all the same. She took up a berth at Taylor’s Wharf in Grimsby’s Royal Dock ready for fitting out ahead of her maiden voyage to Iceland. On went huge steel bobbins for hauling in the nets, the latest Marconi Marine wireless equipment, and finally 240 tons of coal.

Launch day was Saturday 26 August 1933, the opening day of the football season. If Derby County’s team hoped to give the vessel a winning send-off, plans went awry. ‘The Rams’ lost 3-1 at Middlesbrough as ‘Derby County’ took to the water officially for the first time further down the coast.

Perhaps the ‘Boro defeat was an omen, for ‘Derby County’ experienced teething troubles right from the start. Just ten days into her maiden trip, Skipper Fuller reported problems with the winching equipment, which restricted him to fishing only in shallow waters. Nevertheless, the maiden catch was still better than Arsenal’s – when ‘Derby County’ landed her haul at Grimsby on Wednesday 13 September, 1,250 boxes of fish netted £1,086 13s 6d. Like as not, some of it ended up in Derby households for a Friday fish supper.

But alas, a loss of form and a run of bad luck soon followed. On her second outing, ‘Derby County’ was forced to take refuge in Iceland after a suction pump failed, and even worse was to come. On Saturday 16 December, as Derby County beat Sheffield United 5-1 at the Baseball Ground, the club’s namesake was arrested by an Icelandic Coastguard vessel for ‘illegal fishing’. She was ignominiously escorted into port, where the Icelandic court fined Skipper Fuller the substantial sum of 18,500 Kroner (£850) and confiscated all his catch and fishing gear.

‘Derby County’ duly slipped a place in the ‘fish league’ and chugged forlornly back to Grimsby for a full overhaul. Alas, the gallant crew finished a disappointing mid-table in their opening season - victims of the ‘Hand of Cod’ perhaps? Nor did Sammy Crooks and Co. manage to land the big one. Derby County finished fourth in the First Division as Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal won the 1933-34 Football League Championship.

Despite the problems suffered by ‘Derby County’, the football fleet was a resounding success which attracted great public interest. By the time the last vessel (Blackburn Rovers II) was launched in 1962, no fewer than 39 trawlers had borne the name of 29 different English League teams. In addition, a number of Scottish teams were honoured, and in 1961 ‘Real Madrid’ became the first and only overseas side to make waves in Grimsby.

As for rivals, it gives me no pleasure at all to report that ‘Notts Forest’ was caught in severe gales, provoked a strike, was banned from Icelandic waters, suffered a mutiny, and spent an inordinate amount of time in dry-dock. As any Skipper would say, ‘that’s fishing’. Even the name caused a rumpus – when the vessel was launched in 1960, Nottingham Forest’s chairman complained to Consolidated Fisheries about the ‘incorrect use of our abbreviated name’.

‘Derby County’ carried on fishing, doggedly taking ‘each catch at a time’ until the outbreak of war rudely interrupted its established routine. In August 1939, the Admiralty acquired the vessel for £22,518, equipped it with a single 4” gun, and put it into war service as an ASW class trawler (Anti-Submarine Warfare). It was re-registered as FY 171 and took the title ‘HMT Derby County’ (Her Majesty’s Trawler).

‘Derby County’ had an eventful if not heroic war, but she certainly fared better than ‘Aston Villa’, ‘Notts County’ and ‘Lincoln City’, all of which went down after robust encounters with the Germans. The nearest ‘Derby County’ came to a rousing victory was on Friday 15 December 1939. On patrol in the British Channel, she and ‘York City’ detected the presence of a German U-boat and launched a joint attack with depth charges. But there was no evidence of a hit.

Once the war was over, both football and fishing picked up the threads. In March 1946, Derby County clinched a place at Wembley for the historic first post-war Cup Final, and ‘Derby County’ was bought by the Hull Ice Company and returned to fishing duties under the new number GY 194.

At Wembley on 27 April, Derby famously beat Charlton Athletic 4-1 to lift the FA Cup for the first time. It was a victory which brought unprecedented fame to the football club at a time when the whole nation craved heroes. Who knows if the PR value of that triumph was just too good to miss, for Consolidated Fisheries decided they wanted ‘Derby County’ back in the fleet. They bought her back in November 1946 at a cost of £20,380, which was £516 more than the vessel had cost to build! Maybe Jack Stamps’ celebrated hat-trick kicked ‘depreciation’ into touch.

The vessel continued its topsy-turvy journey, veering from ‘full steam ahead’ to ‘troubled waters’ with alarming regularity. In February 1950, she steadfastly joined the British destroyer ‘HMS Welcome’ in searching for a lost Norwegian vessel, but just two months later she was in the news for the wrong reasons as her skipper, Mr. T. S. Jacobsen, collapsed and died on the return journey from the Icelandic fishing grounds.

By the early 1960s, it seemed the glory days were over. And not just for the boat. In June 1963, as ‘The Rams’ drifted aimlessly in the Divison Two doldrums, fire broke out aboard the ageing trawler. She was saved and gamely carried on, but eight months later came the final journey.

Belgium was the last resting place as ‘Derby County’ was scrapped there in February 1964. It was a sad end to a real character.

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