Anyone know of a WW2 Trawler by the name "Mary Herd"

[Ivan Cloherty]

Do you have any idea of what it means that it was a "water carrier" I've tried to find some contextual examples of it online and came up short.

Thanks

If it been an RN vessel it would have been classified from build as a 'Fleet Replenishment Tanker'.

During the war many Atlantic convoys mustered off the East Coast of Iceland, awaiting stragglers or other convoy detachments to join them, these vessels had already been mustered at New York or Halifax NS prior to Atlantic crossing, spending a long time at anchor and using up their fresh water supplies. Normal freight vessels in that day did not have the ability to make their own fresh water from sea water (as they do now), so upon arriving off Iceland they would have near empty fresh water tanks, the job of the water carrier was to go around to the anchored vessels and replenish their FW tanks for the next leg of the journey.

Shipowners were always reluctant to carry a lot of fresh water, as every ton of fresh water carried was one less ton of revenue earning freight and during the war the Govt was responsible for the costs of replenishing the FW in these convoy mustering situations, but the owners had the last say in how much was carried at any one particular time. Freight is money: FW is cost and to hell with the crew consideration, nothing has changed prior and post war!

[Nathan Strachan]

Amazing, this leaves no grey areas at all. Thanks for a great and thorough answer!

[Nathan Strachan]

UPDATE!

I've managed to find a cousin of a cousin who say they have more information for me, but I managed to locate a photograph of the mary herd!

MARY HERD.jpg