In his latest column, JEFF DUNN talks more about Milford’s trawlers and their owners, while also going more into his love for local history.

As promised, in TRM Trawler Corner this week is Shielburn M15, a steel sided trawler built in Aberdeen in 1911, which landed at Milford from May 1915 to January 1919, and from February 1945 to April 1956.

Her previous names were Ann Ford Melville and Star of Freedom, but became Shielburn in 1933.  Local owners included...Westenborg Trawlers, Lewis Wilcox and Co Ltd, Johnston and J.C. Llewellyn (Trawlers) Ltd.

Skippers: Lenny Brown, Matt Owston, Victor Adams and Charles Shearing.

In April 1915, she was requisitioned by the admiralty and converted to a minesweeper based in Milford Haven.

Here's an incident reported in a WW Guardian in June 1946.

"Fifty miles with death sounds like the title of a thriller, but it was more than a thrill for the crew of the steam trawler Shielburn which steamed throughout Tuesday night with a live mine on the deck on top of a pile of fish.

“Skipper Lenny Brown, Stratford Rd, was fishing in darkness on Tuesday night, fifty miles to the south-west, on grounds recently declared clear after sweeping.

“The trawl was hauled aboard, the Bosun, Mr Billy James, Prioryville, opened the cod-end, and fish poured onto the floodlit deck. Suddenly there was a cry of ‘Look out’ and a mine slid onto the heap of fish.

"’Thank God there was no explosion’ said a member of the crew afterwards. It was an amazing escape. But all was not over yet. With their black cargo of death standing upright on its bed of silver fish, the trawler turned about and steamed for port.

“The crew were quite unconcerned after the first shock, and on arrival at Milford it was not long before a Royal Naval Mine Disposal Squad from Swansea was on the scene.

“The mine on the deck could be seen from the shore, and the crew were taken off while the detonator was removed. The mine was later taken to the Royal Naval Mine Depot. This is the third mine reported this week from the same grounds."

In May 1956, Shielburn was broken up at Wards Yard, Castle Pill. Here's a snap of her.

And as an addendum to this week's TRM Trawler Corner here's a snap of Milford Trawler Owners from 1950.

STANDING (L-R): Len Manship, Ken Jenkerson, Wm. Henry Kerr, Ken Richards, Dick Yolland, Alex Richie, R.G. Parsley, Vaughan Davies, Fred Ingram (Snr), Charles Llewellyn, Harold Rossant (Trawler Owners Association), John Yolland (Snr) Count De Lucas Lessner, John Yolland (Jnr), Malcolm J Cobb, A. H. Mitchell.

SEATED (L-R): Herman Westenborg, Wm. Wilcox, Owen Limbrick, Croft Baker (President, British Trawlers Federation), Harry Eastoe Rees, Edgar E Carter.

When I was a kid, living in Vicary Crescent, in Pill, my closest beach was Scotch Bay, which, of course, became one of our gang's favourite haunts; swimming during the summer months, diving off the old wreck, in the winter beachcombing and clambering over the rocks, regularly scraping ankles and knees for fun. But we also occasionally got as far as Milford Beach, and its slipway.

This, of course, was in the 1950s, when Alma Cogan was our ‘Dreamboat’ and Jimmy Young was ‘The Man from Laramie’ but if it had been a century earlier, the 1850s, we would then have been mesmerised by what's pictured in our third snap - the 750' wooden pier, complete with its own toll house and hotel, jutting out from the cliffs between  the two beaches, built by Colonel Greville.

I've recently been invited to give another ‘talk’ to one of Milford's organisations but, although flattered to be asked, and despite the fact that I've done a few over the years, I respectfully declined, partly because, as I've said more than once, never in a million years am I a ‘local historian,’ and without a guitar in my hand, would be as entertaining as a limp lettuce!

But I'm still interested in our local history, and always happy to include a few snippets of historical gen in my TRMs when I get the opportunity, like this week, when like most people, the soaring cost of domestic heating has been on my mind. I can still picture the coalman emptying bags of nutty slack into our shed's coal bunker, and my mother warning me not to go ‘rolling around in it.’

My historical dig into ancient sea trading times showed that coal for domestic use was still being imported in the 19th-century cargoes arrived at Fishguard from Llanelli; at Solva, Saundersfoot and Pembroke Dock from ports in south Wales and Ayrshire, but it was culm, supplied by sea from the Pembrokeshire coalfield, that was predominantly used in the county. The culm was mixed with wet clay to make ‘bricks’ that burnt slowly and very hot. 

I had to ‘remind’ myself that culm was a Pembrokeshire word for very small, shattered coal mixed with dust, and much of the high quality anthracite mined in the county was in this form.

And that's just about it for another week, except to share more ‘wise words,’ this time from Soren Kierkegaard who said: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

See you next time. Please take care.