[3] There is also monthly rotating aerial surveillance of the entire fishing area under call-sign "Watchdog", with aircraft provided by Direct Flight Aviation.

[3] These disputes can escalate to attempted rammings, disruption of each other's fishing, shining searchlights into bridges and even firing flare guns at other trawlers.

[3] In these circumstances ships of the squadron are required to separate the trawlers and act as an informal arbitrator in the dispute to prevent further conflict or injury.

[7] As a result, the first Fishery Protection ship was commissioned for an annual fee to the Admiralty of £100, paid for by the fishermen of Yarmouth.

[7] Before becoming famous, Lord Nelson captained HMS Albemarle in 1781 as part of the Fishery Protection Squadron in North America, capturing the U.S. fishing schooner Harmony off the coast of Cape Cod.

[8] Once the ships were safe, he allowed the schooner to continue unimpeded, saying to the master, "You have rendered us a very essential service, and it is not the custom of English seamen to be ungrateful.

[8] Even today, on Trafalgar Day, the flag officer shaves with the same cut-throat razor used by Nelson while he commanded Albemarle.

[7] With historical rivalries between the U.S. and Britain in North America, the fishery protection squadron in Newfoundland and the surrounding area was seen as very important.

At the time, the British hugely outnumbered the Americans in terms of fishery protection vessels, with 226 guns to 31 respectively.

[9] On 5 August 1853, contingents of the U.S. and British fishery protection squadrons for the area met at Halifax, Nova Scotia for a goodwill visit.

[9] The steamer USS Princeton, carrying Commodore Shubrick and his flag, arrived under dense fog and heavy rain at 8:00 pm.

[9] At the end of May 1898, HMS Partridge and Columbine arrived at St. John's from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to form part of the fishery protection squadron for the French treaty coast.

[10] With these new arrivals and others, by the end of 1898 the entire squadron had been rebuilt with powerful, modern cruisers replacing the outdated corvettes previously seen.

[11] Two smaller ships were also sent by the French to replace local wooden transport vessels, and in Autumn a French squadron gathered at Saint Pierre and Miquelon, forcing the British government to respond by sending two extra ships to Sydney, Nova Scotia, only 18 hours steaming from St Pierre.

[11] As a result, the two nations roughly shared the fishing grounds under an unstable joint sovereignty understanding, but the respective fishery captains were given what were described by the local press as "autocratic powers".

The scandal involved John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, who had an extramarital affair with Christine Keeler, a 19-year-old model.

The affair became a significant issue because Keeler was also involved with a Soviet naval attaché, raising concerns about national security.

The Profumo affair severely damaged the credibility of the British government at the time and contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

[14] On 17 April 1957, the Glasgow Herald reported that several East Anglian herring drifters (based at Aberdeen) were encountering trouble with Russian fisherman, who were intentionally fouling the nets of the British in the fishing grounds 40 miles off the coast of Norway.

During the first war, known by the Royal Navy as Operation Whippet, two extra frigates and two minesweepers were sent to the squadron on 16 August 1958 to augment the defence against Iceland's unilateral tripling of its territorial waters.

HMS Russell reported that the Icelandic gunboat Aegir had attempted to ram her while she was escorting British trawlers in the disputed area.

[23] In another incident, on 7 October, naval surgeons managed to amputate six fingers from an injured fisherman from the trawler Loch Inver.

[7] Because of the limited range and poor sea-keeping qualities of hovercraft, however, these plans were quickly abandoned in favour of regular craft.

[7] In 1967, the Fishery Protection Squadron consisted of three divisions:[7] On 1 September 1972, Iceland again expanded her maritime exclusive economic zone, this time to 50 mi (43 nmi; 80 km).

[26] The ships would take a two-step approach: As previously mentioned, the Ægir carried out the first successful cutting on 5 September in an action against a trawler believed to be the Peter Scott, sailing under a pirate flag and a Union Jack, with its registration number and name covered.

For the year of 1973, this had expanded to 60 British and 14 West German trawlers; a loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of nets.

The captains believed that they were well within their rights to fish on what they understood to be the high seas, an assumption they interpreted from the 'interim measures of protection' issued by the International Court of Justice on 17 August 1972.

], three or four British frigates, four tugs, and as many as five Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels were in the disputed area to protect an average of 46 trawlers from Icelandic harassment.

[28] In addition, several Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft were sent to the area, and the total manpower assigned was in the region of 2,000 personnel.