Auxiliary patrol boat Nord Caper

Mathll · June 17, 2026, 11:56pm

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Hello everyone and welcome to this new suggestion.

Today I’m presenting a new French ship, a vessel with a legendary history: the Nord Caper.

Built in 1907 by the Dunkirk shipyards as a trawler, the Nord Caper passed through the hands of several shipowners between the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel. In 1915, it was requisitioned, like many other French fishing vessels. Indeed, while the French fleet possessed an impressive naval force at the time, it was completely unsuited to combat against submarines, a new type of warfare that completely changed the game during the First World War. To counter this, France, like many other countries, rapidly armed numerous smaller, more agile vessels better suited to fighting this new threat. Based in Calais, the Nord Caper spent the first weeks of the conflict patrolling the English Channel without any success. It was then that the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean, more specifically to the Aegean Sea Division.

Along with several other units, the Nord Caper was tasked with patrolling the Aegean Sea and its numerous islands, with the objective of finding any German submarines that might be resting there, as well as any suspicious vessels that might be assisting them. The first few weeks of searching were fruitless for the ship, but one morning, at first light, a flagless schooner was sighted nearby. Approaching discreetly and seeing no one on board, the Nord Caper launched a longboat with three men-at-arms and a Cretan interpreter. Boarding, the four men were astonished to discover about forty Ottoman soldiers in cavalry uniforms, asleep at the foot of the mast under heavy blankets. The Nord Caper then positioned itself alongside the sailing vessel and, like a corsair ship of centuries past, launched a boarding action. The ten or so French soldiers managed to capture the entire Turkish crew without any losses on their side. But that wasn’t all. While the capture was significant, the schooner’s cargo was even more so. It carried gifts destined for Libya, intended to persuade the remaining local populations reluctant to join forces with the Arab peoples fighting the British in Egypt. This capture delayed the offensive by four weeks, giving General Maxwell more time to regroup his troops. Bringing its prisoners to Malta, the Nord Caper was greeted with a triumphant welcome by the French and British sailors stationed there.

The ship continued its service until the end of the war, carrying out several towing and troop transport missions, notably participating in the rescue of the crew of the Peresviet, a Russian ship that had struck a German mine off Port Said. In 1919, it was decommissioned and returned to fishing companies. It was renamed several times, but it was again under the name Nord Caper that it was captured and converted into a minesweeper by the Germans during the Second World War. It was used for a significant portion of the war and survived. The ship was finally decommissioned and scrapped in 1953, after nearly 45 years of service.

Characteristics

Length: 46.34 m

Width: 8.02 m

Draft: 4.18 m

Mass: 418 tons

The vessel is powered by a 700 hp engine.

The number of crew members is rarely mentioned; however, images taken after the capture of the Turkish vessel show a total of 36 crew members.

Weapons

The ship’s armament is particularly simple, designed for operation by a small crew and therefore consisting of only two guns: a 65mm main gun mounted at the bow and a 47mm secondary gun at the stern. These guns, mounted on carriages, provide full-range coverage and allow the Nord Caper to attack light units.

Pictures

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