craft of various descriptions. The Admiralty, as was
pointed out, were doing not what they would like to do, but what they
could do, both in the way of offensive and defensive action. The
supplies of raw material and labour controlled in large measure the
character and extent of the operations at sea.

CHAPTER VII

PATROL CRAFT AND MINESWEEPING SERVICES

It is difficult to give an idea of the truly magnificent work achieved
by the patrol and minesweeping services during the year 1917 without
showing how these services expanded after the outbreak of war in 1914.

When war was declared the only vessels immediately available for the
work consisted of seven torpedo gunboats manned by officers and men of
the Royal Navy, and fourteen trawlers manned by fishermen. All these
vessels were fitted for regular minesweeping work, and the crews of the
trawlers formed a part of what was known as the "Trawler Reserve." Other
trawlers, exceeding eighty in number, became, however, almost
immediately available at the outbreak of war under the organized Trawler
Reserve which had been set up a year or two preceding the outbreak of
war. Men belonging to this reserve had been trained in the work of
minesweeping and were paid a small retaining fee.

As soon as the German methods of indiscriminate minelaying and submarine
attacks upon merchant ships commenced, a great expansion of this force
became necessary. The matter was handled energetically by the Admiralty
at the time, and by the end of 1914 over 700 vessels (yachts, trawlers
and drifters) were employed on patrol and minesweeping duties, and the
Admiralty had also commenced to build vessels of the trawler type
specially for this work.

By the commencement of 1917 there were in use some 2,500 yachts,
trawlers and drifters, the great majority of them manned by fishermen or
men of the R.N.R. or R.N.V.R. and officered by trawler or drifter
skippers or officers of the R.N.R. or R.N.V.R., many of them having
temporary commissions in these services.

Early in the war the coast of the United Kingdom had been divided into
areas for purposes of patrol and minesweeping, and each area was under
the command of a naval officer on either the active or retired list.

The Chart D shows the respective areas at one period. No very important
changes took place in the delimitation of the areas during the war, and
the chart may therefore be considered generally representative of the
organizat