While carrying out some other site maintenance, I've taken the opportunity to strip out some comments made on the Campbeltown Loch Boom where they were lost in the text, so they may be better considered in the open.

I have to paraphrase them a little, to put them into context since they're no longer within their surrounding text, so will apologise in advance in case I make any mistakes, or change the intended meaning :

On which side of the boom was the minefield?  If this could be established with certainty, then the various possibilities regarding the various installations could become certainties.

There would have been no need to extend the boom into shallow waters at either end, as it would have been intended to prevent the approach of enemy submarines. Any enemy surface vessel would certainly have been detected and countered well outside Campbeltown Loch. Consider it most likely that the boom extended from a point off Davaar Island between the lighthouse and the slip/jetty and directly across to the mainland somewhere beneath Baraskomil farm. It is known locally that on several occasions, the Campbeltown lifeboat sailed across the Dhorlinn (the sandbank, submerged only at high tide, between Davaar Island and Davaar Point)to avoid the boom when tidal conditions made this possible.

I don't know exactly where the land beneath Baraskomil farm would be, but am guessing it refers to the area south of Maiden's Plantation, east of the depot.

Geez, I know most of the place names here (except the farm) and i spent a lot of the war years in Campbeltown, but I have to admit that I didn't even know there was a boom across the entrance to Campbeltown Loch, nor that there was a minefield anywhere near the loch. I don't even recall seeing any boom-defence boats around the loch entrance. The only item I can comment on is the sandbar at the Dhorlinn. It is passable at high tide by boats that don't draw too much water, but not without risk. I can imagine the lifeboat having a bash at the  Dhorlinn, as it could save time, but I never saw nor heard of the fishing boats using the Dhorlin entrance to the loch and saving time was of interest to them.

I always find it of interest to read about Campbeltown on SecSc.

Meant to include the link to the boom page, so have added it to the opening post.

At the risk of "teaching the sucking of eggs", if the above was news to you, then you should go to the Main Site and slot words like "campbeltown" and "kintyre" into the Search box. There should be quite a few interesting returns as the peninsula's an interesting place - and we like it. One of the pages (forget which one now) also has a nice pic of the Dhorlinn from the air, and shows strangers why not many boats would head across it, unless there was a good high tide running. I reckon a fishing boat would just draw too much water to have a chance of crossing it, even at the highest tide, but that's just a guess.

I don't know if it's by omission, or if simply the fact that the installation was operated from the shore, but there is no mention in any of the info we have regarding the boom of boom defence vessels being part of the line-up, maybe that's why it took 22 ratings to manage it.

Looking at the shore building remaining at Otter Ferry - the Loch Fyne Boom - suggests to me that the net could have been floated out, and dragged back onshore from the land, but without sight of operating procedures or more detail, that's only my own guesswork.

Thank you Apollo, for the reference to the Campbeltown sites. I had a very enjoyable toot around them and I also read a couple or so pages from the submarine book. The only location at which I ever saw the Cyclops was just off Port Bannantyne. The steamer used to pass quite close to her en-route to Tarbert from Wemyss Bay, and the "mother ship" always had a bevy of submarines nestling into each side of her. There were always quite a lot of sailors got off the steamer at Rothsey and I suspect they were bound for the Cyclops.

I had a toot around the pictures of the shore around the Trench Point, but I don't remember any of the iron stuff at all. Oh I recall quite clearly the location from which the boom ratings worked at the Point, but I was never in it until it reopened as a ship yard. (In fact we had a serious look at one of the little bungalows built just behind the yard in the late 70's ???... cost was about £14,000!). I recall that in the naval compound there were lots of buoys lined up; perhaps this had to do with the boom.

About 1942 (maybe '41) a naval launch ran aground on the rocks at a point just about where I'd guess the mainland end of the boom would have been located. I don't know what happened to the launch, but I was on it not long after it finished up on the rocks and I managed to get a few souvenirs... not the wheel though, couldn't get it off! Perhaps this launch was involved in maintaining the boom. That wee stretch of water sparating the Trench Point from the island is quite treacherous and has taken quite a few lives.

I think Dugald may be referring to Jester (one of three motor launches - the others were Robin Hood and Silver Fox, if I remember correctly) which patrolled the approaches to Campbeltown Loch, and so operated beyond the boom and minefield. They were moored when in harbour on the inside of the Old Quay at Campbeltown, close to the rescue tugs.

My memory is that the grounding was further north than Dugald suggests and that the wreckage of the launch remained until after the end of the war. But we may be thinking of different launches and different groundings. I have a very faint recollection of seeing it from a fishing boat which was taking part in a regatta/race round the Otterard buoy.

Also Dugald's reference to buoys indicates what the "oil drums" referred to elsewhere actually were. They would have been spares or extras to float the boom.

Sorry that I have nothing in how the boom operated and what kind of "gate vessel" was used.

Passerby

The exact location of the R.N. wreck is something I'm rather vague about Passerby, but what I can say for certain, is that it was between the Trench Point and Kirkousland (Apollo knows how to spell it!), as I was on my way round to the farm there. By the end of the war I had a bike and I used the high road to reach Kirkousland rather than the shore road and path, so I didn't see the wreck... my interest in wrecks had waned a wee bit by then too. Interesting stuff Passerby.

I used the boat names provided by Passerby to see if I could track down anything more regarding a depot ship, but other than the earlier suggestion that Cyclops was a visitor when need, as opposed to being formally stationed there, nothing else was found.

Here is copy of what may be a complete list, giving all the names as noted at the beginning of 1942:

Base ship - NIMROD at Campbeltown

Anti-submarine Training Ship - NEMESIS at Campbeltown

39th Anti-Submarine Group - anti-submarine trawlers BRETWALDA (ex-ADMINISTRATEUR DE BOURNAT), French L’ATLANTIQUE, both at Campbeltown, anti-submarine whalers BEDLINGTON (ex-TERJE 3) at Ardrossan repairing, BOARHOUND (ex-TERJE 2), SPANIEL (ex-TERJE 1), both at Campbeltown, anti-submarine yacht TUSCARORA (SO, ) at Campbeltown

84th Anti-Submarine Group – French torpedo boats LE CORDELIERE in Clyde in care and maintenance repairing, LA FLORE at Campbeltown, L’INCOMPRISE at Ardrossan, British anti-submarine yachts SHEMARA (SO, ) at Campbeltown, ST MODWEN at Ardrossan repairing, VALENA at Ardrossan, anti-submarine yacht CARINA at Campbeltown

Anti-Submarine Target Vessel - ICEWHALE at Fairlie

Boom Defence Vessel - GIRARD at Campbeltown

Harbour Defence Patrol Craft - yachts JESTER, ROBIN HOOD repairing to comp 2 Feb, SILVER FOX, all in Clyde

Rescue Tug Base Ship - MINONA at Campbeltown

Rescue tug Accommodation Ship - VIGILANT at Campbeltown

Air Sea Rescue Service - rescue boat COCKAWEE at Port Ellen