ALL    THE    VALOUR   OF   A   B ATT L E - C RUIS E R

There was no moon, and the night was dark. Suddenly he heard the drone of aircraft engines. He ran to the gun. Dark though it was, one of the aircraft seemed to have observed the deeper blackness of the trawler's form as she rode at anchor. It circled her three times, as though investigating, then approached from astern, about 500 feet above the deck.

Skipper Spall did not order " Action Stations," which would have brought his men from their bunks in the fo'csle below. To do that, as he explained afterwards, he would have had to run to the bridge to sound the bell, and by the time the hands had closed up the Heinkel " might have been back in Germany." Instead, he tipped the gun and fired half a magazine at the approaching enemy. He felt that he had sent some shells thudding into the Heinkel's fuselage, and exultantly he let go the rest of the pan in rapid fire. The Heinkel zoomed low over the ship, losing

height, and a few moments later blew up in the sea half a mile ahead. The action had been a matter of seconds, but the hands were astir. The Skipper went for'ard and shouted down the companion-way leading to the fo'csle.

"Just come up and have a look at this, lads ! "

They tumbled up on deck to watch the Heinkel blazing in the sea.

That is how Skipper T. H. Spall, R.N.R., won the Distinguished Service Cross. The story is told here not so much because his action was an outstanding episode of the war, but because it was characteristic of the indomitable spirit of the trawler skippers: tough, brave, enterprising, accustomed to make fair weather of a foul wind, and modest above all.

When Skipper Spall made his report at the Base later in the day he told the Port Mine-sweeping Officer that there was " nothing to make a fuss about." It had been, he explained, "just a damned lucky do."

FI a H TI N Q (HIP. Trawlers do more than sweep. They fight. With this Oerlikon gun, the Stella Rigel struck down a Heinkel in a night attack in the War Channel. Back in her home port she proudly puts out her coloured badge and painted name.   At sea, like other trawlers, she becomes a grey ship with a number.