HMT Alvis.

 On the 18 Sept 1939, just after the start of WW2, the Alvis was fishing in the vicinity of St Kilda. At about 1.20pm a shot was heard and a large spout of water erupted close to the Alvis. The skipper and crew then spotted a German submarine. The skipper, Albert Thomason, was signalled from the U Boat and instructed to abandon his vessel. The small lifeboat was launched and the crew left the Alvis. The lifeboat pulled alongside the submarine, the U-35, and the commander, Werner Lott, asked for the captain of the Alvis. Thomason went aboard the submarine and, on the conning tower, Lott extended his hand in welcome. He then said, " I am sorry but I will have to sink your ship" and asked Skipper Thomason if there were anymore crew aboard the Alvis. The crew and Lott, all speaking very good English, handed cigarettes to the Alvis crew, and then ordered them back to their vessel. Lott sent a working party over to Alvis under the command of a Lieutenant. On their arrival, they threw the wireless overboard and then chopped away the fishing gear and smashed the dynamo in the engine room. The Lieutenant asked Thomason if he could take a lifebelt as a souvenir, which he did. However, Lott gave Thomason a bottle of gin in return with his compliments.

No provisions or the fish caught were taken from the Alvis by the Germans. The reason the U-Boat commander did not sink the Alvis was that, in his opinion, the 13-man crew would never make it back to shore in their lifeboat. The Alvis returned unharmed to her homeport of Fleetwood, but that same day the U-Boat commander found 3 other Fleetwood vessels. They were the Arlita, the Lord Minto, and the Nancy Hague. After removing the crews from the Arlita and Lord Minto onto the Nancy Hague, the U-35 sank the two empty ships. The three crews returned to Fleetwood aboard the Nancy Hague. The Alvis was subsequently requisitioned in 1940 by the Admiralty. Werner Lott was taken prisoner of war aboard HMS Kingston, with all of his crew, after he scuttled his U-boat on 29 November 1939.