15 April 1919 - Emulator
Despite the fact that the Great War ended on 11 November 1918, mines continued to take a toll on shipping around the British Isles. Although the known minefields were cleared, in the two years following the war twenty-seven vessels were sunk by mines with the loss of 251 lives. One more of the Kolberg’s mines awaited a victim. Five months after the end of the First World War the steam drifter Emulator was decommissioned from Royal Navy service at Grimsby. She had only been at Scarborough a few days when she was taken to sea by a seven strong crew of Filey fishermen. The Emulator was in the fishing grounds off Scarborough when she struck a mine at 9.35pm. Two vessels fishing near the Emulator, the Fear Not and Tryphena, searched for survivors, but in the darkness no trace of the men or wreckage was found. It was presumed that all seven men had gone down with the ship. It was a tragedy that was felt particularly keenly among the tight fishing community of Filey. Many of the crew were family members, including a father and two sons. Astonishingly, there would have been another father with two sons on board, but William Jenkinson’s son had not been demobilised as quickly as was expected from the Royal Navy and thus missed the sailing. One of the crewmen, Richard Jenkinson, has recently returned from Royal Navy service having skippered a minesweeper in the Mediterranean.
Although the Emulator disaster was attributed to a mine from the Kolberg, it is impossible to know for certain, there were also large British minefields that were swept after the war, but it is possible that individual mines slipped their moorings. In 1920 three Scarborough trawlers, Strathord (23 February), Taranaki (9 May) and Jack Johnson (3 September), were lost to mines. Should the twenty-one fishermen who died in those sinkings be added to the Kolberg’s toll?
Crew Lost: Emulator, Scarborough
Richard Cowling, aged 48, Filey
Matthew Crimlisk, skipper, aged 47, Filey
Thomas Crimlisk, aged 17, Filey
Wilfred Crimlisk, aged 20, Filey
Richard Jenkinson, aged 26, Filey
Thomas Jenkinson, aged 16, Filey
William Jenkinson, aged 44, Filey
