Like Silver Cloud II, the 49ft Strathgarry SY 88 was built by Gerrard Brothers of Arbroath, though in the previous year, 1971. Built for Angus McLeod (‘Stuttery Angus’) and Donald M Murray of the Isle of Lewis, and financed with…
Ashore for Christmas? For Hull trawlermen, Yuletide trips were often an obligation – and were fraught with added danger. By Alec Gill Christmas was a time of conflict within Hull’s trawling industry. The clash was between love and money. Trawlermen…
Women had not long got the vote when Dora Walker became the North East’s first female coble skipper. Brian W Lavery charts the career of the woman who went wartime fishing with a pistol strapped to her waist Dora Walker…
110 years ago this month, a Hull trawler perished when she ran aground after crewmen mistook deadly white cliffs for snow. Brian W Lavery tells of the Diamond, the skipper who saved every soul aboard – and what became of…
Looking for a Christmas present? After the success of the limited-edition hardback version of Folkestone’s Fishing Industry Past and Present, the book is also available in paperback with two extra pictures. Written by Frank Bond, John Gale and Alan Taylor,…
One hundred and forty years ago this month, the Scottish port of Eyemouth suffered Britain’s worst ever fishing disaster, when 189 men and boys perished on what locals still call Black Friday. Brian W Lavery recalls the tragedy Eyemouth’s fishermen…
There’s just one week left for the Kickstarter campaign to produce a new photo book about Alec Gill’s documentary study of Hull’s Hessle Road fishing community. The Kickstarter is live until 7 October at 12 midday. “Having hitch-hiked abroad and photographed…
Photographer Laszlo Torday documented the North East of England, including the North Shields fishing industry, for decades. Yet little is known of him – or about his pictures. Brian W Lavery reports… Day after day, year after year, he went…
The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther has launched a new exhibition depicting the human stories underpinning Hull’s distant-water trawling industry, its demise and legacy. The exhibition, named ‘Loss + Resilience’, is a study in photography and film by award-winning independent…
A new exhibition about the important role of women in the fishing industry over time is now open at the Old Low Light Heritage Centre at North Shields Fish Quay. The exhibition, entitled ‘That’s Women’s Work’, will run until the…
