A 69ft fishing boat built by J&G Forbes & Co of Sandhaven in 1947 as Jessie West FR 559 for Fraserburgh skipper Alex West is still active in British Columbia, Canada, reports David Linkie. The traditional-style dual-purpose herring drifter/seine-net boat,…
Thirty years ago, on 1 October, 1989, fishery protection officer Jim Portus jumped ship from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF – now the MMO) to manage the South Western Fish Producers’ Organisation (SWFPO) He did so after…
The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society is calling on the public and seafaring community to submit the personal memories, stories and historical recollections, in the form of images, poems or prose, that best represent what the maritime and seafaring community means to…
There have been a few people who have helped me along the way during my career within the fishing industry, but none more so than Reg Matthews, who sadly passed away on 22 January, 2019, aged 87. Reg Matthews was…
Sailing smacks and box fleets in the late 1800s. Hull trawlerman William Oliver reminisces. Above: Socrates is a typical steam trawler that fished from Hull in the early 1900s. (Photo: Dr Alec Gill) My first recollections of Hull Fish Dock were…
Our ‘Where are they now?’ feature provides brief histories, including build details, of a varied selection of fishing vessels from years gone by. Some of these vessels continue to perform successfully today, under different names to the ones they were…
A new book on the history of Littlehampton lifeboats recounts the history from its opening in the late 19th century to the present day, reports John Periam. Littlehampton lifeboat station was closed after the First World War but was reopened…
Located in Thurso Bay, and sheltered by Holburn Head to the northwest and Dunnet Head to the northeast, Scrabster harbour has long occupied a fairly unique position in the UK fishing industry. Its geographical location in the Pentland Firth meant…
John Addison looks back to the end of an era in the 1960s that saw the last of the highly successful dual-purpose boats built in northeast Scotland, that alternated between drift-netting for herring and seine-netting for whitefish. Above: The Fraserburgh boat…
For more than 20 years, the Scottish west coast port of Ullapool was one of the busiest landing centres in the UK on a seasonal basis. Ullapool’s rise to prominence coincided with the growth of mackerel fishing, when a large…