I'm given a nautical themed desk calendar each year, it features reproductions of oil paintings of ships, normally 18th century double masted frigates rounding the horn or off the coast of Antigua, that sort of thing.

January this year though features what's obviously a fishing boat in heavy seas and is called 'The Huddersfield Town Hauls her Trawl'. The following description explains that the 'Huddersfield Town' was a Grimsby based trawler belonging to Consolidated Fisheries and part of their "famous" football fleet.

I must confess the fame of this fleet had passed me by, however my curiosity was piqued. A Google search reveals the company no longer exists, however someone has compiled a website which contains a record of most of their ships. It's brilliant, it's what makes the internet so great.

Sure enough they had a variety of boats named after football teams. The choosing of a club seems random to me, but perhaps the choice is tied historically to something at that time.
They've a Man City but not a Man Utd, the Nottingham Forest was broken up for spares, the Spurs developed boiler trouble, was towed into Grimsby and scrapped and Notts County was sunk by a German U-boat. There was an Aldershot and a Real Madrid, they don't seem to know what happened to it.

A niche genre, but anyone know anymore about this?

Here's one of my more successful threads from five years ago.

Thank-you, it was looking like a nil thread until you threw me a line and towed me back to Grimsby, albeit to be scrapped. Your quiz was considerably more successful than this thread I note.

What's not to love about 20th century trawlers named after football clubs, I don't understand OTF sometimes, Bayern Munich have a new manager, who cares!

Considering how many were made by Smiths Dock Co Ltd, South Bank, Middlesbrough it's a disgrace that they seem not to have had one named after the Boro. Or even South Bank Albion.

Our dad used to work at Smiths Dock. He was a stevedore, not a shipbuilder, mind.

It appears the Leeds United was broken up in Sunderland. How apt.

I would love to see the picture on your calendar AMMS.

It's a fascinating website there AMMS but if you admit to liking it that young pup EIM stews away for a couple of days and then steams in all abusive like and hints that you're a geek.

We've been there with the train thing.

Cavalry Trouser Tips wrote:


Let's see if this works. http://instagram.com/p/UzbJOKH6Ln/

Edit - Nope it didn't. I'll try and figure out another way.

I'm missing the 'preview post' button just now.

AMMS wrote:


I haven't seen that button for months

Interesting to see the trawler called "Notts Forest" rather than "Nottingham Forest", I thought this was a no-no for Forest fans?