HNoMS Honningsvåg was a naval trawler that served throughout the Second World War as a patrol boat in the Royal Norwegian Navy. She was launched at the North Sea harbour of Wesermünde in Hanover, Germany in February 1940 as the fishing trawler Malangen and was captured by Norwegian militiamen at the North Norwegian port of Honningsvåg during her maiden fishing journey to the Barents Sea. Having taken part in the defence of Norway in 1940 she spent the rest of the war years patrolling the ocean off Iceland. She was decommissioned in 1946, sold to a civilian fishing company in 1947 and scrapped in 1973.
Honningsvåg off Iceland
The port of Sandnessjøen where Honningsvåg was based for much of the Norwegian Campaign.
Sandnessjøen Hospital, where wounded German prisoners were treated in 1940
HNoMS Honningsvåg sometime during the Second World War.
Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built to naval specifications, others adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather, and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck, ASDIC sonar below, and a 3-inch (76 mm) or 4-inch (102 mm) gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.
First World War naval trawler, HMT Swansea Castle
Second World War naval trawler, HMT Lancer
A naval trawler's gun crew mans a 12-pounder (76-mm) Mk V gun on the forecastle
HMT Northern Sky pitching and rolling at slow speed along her patrol lines. Operating off Iceland, this trawler made the last attack of the Second World War on a U-boat.