Hms Active III

Active III was an 81-gross-ton fishing drifter built in 1907 and registered at Banff as BF 771. Owned by W. Barclay of Dundee, it was hired by the Admiralty in April 1915, given Admiralty number 2486 and used as a net drifter with a small 3-pounder gun. It was based at Milford Haven with ten aboard under skipper Alexander Smith of the Royal Naval Reserve.

On 15 October 1917 Active III struck a mine in the approaches off Milford Haven or the wider St George's Channel and was lost. The checked sources did not securely identify which German submarine laid that particular mine, so a mine-layer should not be named by guess.

All ten people aboard were killed. The complete loss of a small crew meant there was no survivor account of the final explosion or sinking.

The national Welsh record gives a documented loss point, and later work also calls it a documented loss rather than a surveyed, identified hull. No reliable measurements, seabed condition or recovered identifying object were found. The position should therefore be described as the recorded loss area unless a future survey proves the wreck.

Active III shows how fishing boats and fishing crews were drawn directly into naval defence. Net drifters did necessary but exposed work around bases and sea routes. The death of the entire ten-person crew brought the submarine mine war into the Milford Haven approaches far from the better-known fleet battles.