Scottish east coast fishery
Encyclopedia
The Scottish
east coast fishery
has been in existence for more than a thousand years, spanning the Viking
period right up to the present day.
and herring
. The Norsemen
came to Scotland
from the 9th to 11th centuries and settled in the Northern Isles
, Western Isles and on the mainland. They had fish as a large part of their diet, and excavations of Viking sites in Orkney and Shetland have found middens (kitchen waste areas) containing large quantities of fish bones. These bones were mainly of cod, saithe and ling but herring, haddock and whiting bones were also found. They used the line fishing method with hooks and bait.
The Dutch
had a near monopoly of the herring fishing from the 15th to the 17th centuries. The boats, called busses
, were very large. They lay overnight with the drift net
s set to catch the herring and were hauled by hand in the morning. The herring were salted and placed in barrels. These barrels were then transferred to small boats called jagers, which were tenders to the busses. These boats took the fish to the markets.
The 18th century saw some Scottish
fishermen emulate this Dutch
method of fishing. In 1718, the government introduced the bounty system to promote large scale fishing. This meant that the government paid a bounty to the boat owner based on the tonnage of the vessel and would also pay a bounty to anyone for simply building a fishing boat. This continued until 1820 and did much to encourage the growth of the fishery. The fishery was valuable and the fleets often came under attack from French
and Spanish
privateers. Because of this, armed ships were employed to accompany and defend the fishing boats. Despite this, the Dutch style of fishing didn’t produce the results the government wanted. The bulk of the Scottish fishery was still using the line and bait method in inshore waters. However, in 1785 the government instituted barrel bounties, which meant that the bounties were payable based on the amount of cured herring produced. This encouraged the herring curers to enter into contracts with the fishermen whereby they would be guaranteed a price for their catch.
The 19th century saw the greatest growth in sea fishing on the Scottish east coast. In the early years of that century the boats were very small, made of wood and were either one or two masted. They were not expensive to build and small repairs were carried out by the fishermen themselves. These early boats needed to be light so they could be dragged up the beaches.
The fishermen did not venture far from the shore, as these boats were undecked and unstable under stormy conditions. In 1848, a violent storm hit the country and 124 boats were sunk, and 100 fishermen lost their lives. The government appointed Captain John Washington to enquire into the disaster and to make recommendations (the Washington Report). He pointed out that the boats were too small and being without decks prone to water inundation. However, not all of the fishermen were happy about larger decked boats. They felt that heavier boats would be harder to row and decks would make it easier for men to be washed overboard. Also beaching the boats would be impossible. But a good many fishermen took a contrary view and felt that the decked boats was a good idea. They realised that the boats could fish further from the shore and would be better in storm conditions. Larger boats could hold more fish and so profits would be greater. The first decked boat was built in Eyemouth
in 1856 and this soon became the norm for the Scottish fishing fleet. These sail boats were of three main types: Skaffies, Fifies and Zulus. Common to all three types were the lugsale, hence their name - lugger
s. The need for the larger boats spurred on the building of harbours all along the east coast, in the 1850s and 1860s. This heralded an enormous change in the size of the herring fishery. Initially, the market for the pickled herring was Ireland and the West Indies where it was fed to slaves. The market received a setback in the 1830s following the ending of slavery on British-owned plantations and, from 1845 to 1851 when the Great Irish Famine forced a mass emigration from Ireland. However, improvements in curing techniques produced a superior product and soon meant that new markets opened up in Russia
and the Baltic
countries.
The fishermen, with the support of the curers, invested in larger boats and additional nets. The fleet grew quickly but was still could only fish for herring during the two months when the fish were off the Scottish east coast. By 1880, there were around 7,000 Scottish boats involved in herring fishing so the fishing season needed to be extended. This led to a migration of a sizeable amount of boats and curers to the west coast in May and June. By 1880, the numbers of boats fishing the west coast numbered more than 1,000. In the 1860s, Scottish boats were also to be found in East Anglia
n waters for the Autumn fishing. Initially, Scottish curers were not present in any great numbers in this fishery but by the end of the 19th century large numbers were represented in Great Yarmouth
and Lowestoft
. By this time, the Scottish fleet actually outnumbered the local one. The curers soon turned their attention to Shetland for the early summer fishing causing the local Shetland fishermen to adopt the drift net and larger boats. By the early 20th century, more than 1,800 boats fished the Shetland waters.
In 1884 the herring industry faced a crisis. The curers wanted an end to the contract system because they could not balance quantity and costs with market conditions and so wanted a move to an auction process. Fishermen wanted the status quo but reluctantly agreed and from 1887 the herring were auctioned.
The peak of the herring fishery industry and also its main decline came between 1900 and the First World War. Steam-powered fishing boats appeared towards the end of the 19th century and it was steam drifters that would take the volume of the catch to new heights. The powered winches allowed longer nets to be deployed and their speed enabled the boats to get to market quickly and to return to sea. In those early years of the 20th century, the Scottish catch reached 2 million barrels annually.
Before the First World War, Germany
and Russia
were the main market for British herring. After the war, however, Germany was racked by inflation and was impoverished. Russia underwent the 1917 Revolution and civil war. Other European countries started to compete strongly with the British fleets and for twenty years the industry went into a steep decline. The beginnings of the seine net fishing began in Scotland in 1921 but the use of the large inefficient steam boats greatly hindered this new whitefish fishery. After the Second World War, the Scottish east coast fleet, with government assistance, was totally regenerated becoming mainly a whitefish industry. This in turn declined in the 1970s and 1980s due to overfishing and the subsequent imposition of quotas by the European Union
. The herring industry continued to shrink. From the 1960s, trawling and purse-netting were the main methods of pelagic fishing, which not only includes herring but also mackerel. Although a quota is placed on the total herring catch and with no limit on mackerel, this sector is now the healthiest in the Scottish fleet.
The Norsemen
were skilled seamen and boat builders and their boat designs depended on their needs. Trading vessels were wide, to allow large cargo storage, while raiding boats were long and narrow and very fast. They all used the clinker
fashion of planking, i.e. the planks overlapped one another. The boats used for fishing were scaled-down versions of their cargo boats. The Scandinavia
n influence affected boat building long after the Viking period came to an end. Yoles from the Orkney island of Stroma
were built in the same way as the Norse boats. Early Scottish boat builders copied the Scandinavian designs with their clinker planking and characteristic sharp stems and sterns.
region. The early skaffie boats were small with rounded stems and raked sterns. They were two-masted with a tall dipping lugsail and a mizzen sail. Their short keel gave them good manoeuvrability in good weather, but they tended to be unstable in bad weather. They were usually crewed by around six people. Above all, though, they were light enough to be hauled up on to the beaches. The boats were un-decked and provided no shelter for the crew. Because of the vulnerability of the boats, they stayed only a few miles out to sea in full view of the land. These boats were gradually built bigger and could be around 42 feet (12.8 m) long, and partially decked. This came about because the harbours that were constructed from the mid to late19th century meant that the boats no longer needed to be beached. Skaffies were not built in any great numbers after 1900.
The "Fifie" then became the predominant fishing boat on the Scottish east coast. They were used from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. Fifies had a vertical stem and stern with a broad beam, which made them very stable. Their long keel was a disadvantage, especially manoeuvring in confined spaces. These boats were two masted with a main dipping lugsail and a mizzen sail. The masts were set quite far forward and aft to release a good working space. Fifies built from 1860 onwards were all decked, and from 1870s onwards the bigger boats were built with carvel
planking, i.e. the planks were laid edge-to-edge instead of the overlapping clinker style of previous boats. Some boats were now being built up to about 70 feet (21.3 m) in length and were very fast.
fisherman, William "Dad" Campbell came up with a radical design for his new boat. It had the vertical stem of the Fifie and the steeply raked stern of the Skaffie, and he called this boat Nonesuch, registration number INS 2118. She was relatively small, 52 feet (15.8 m) overall with a 39 feet (11.9 m). The Nonesuch had her registration closed on 12 January 1901 after having been broken up. The Zulu War raging in South Africa
at the time gave the name to this new class of boat.
The Zulu boats were built to the carvel
method of planking, which was much stronger than the clinker
system. The shape of the Zulus gave the boats a long deck but a shorter keel, which greatly improved their manoeuvrability. Zulus were two-masted boats and carried three sails - fore, mizzen and jib. The sails were very heavy and difficult to haul, and the masts had to be very long and strong. Masts could be 60 feet (18.3 m) tall on boats of 80 feet (24.4 m) in length. Their design produced very fast boats that became invaluable to herring fishing fleets. They got to the fishing grounds quickly and returned swiftly with the catch. Because of these qualities, the Zulus rapidly became very popular along the entire east coast. As the 20th century approached, steam capstans were introduced, and this made the hauling of the sails and nets much easier for the crews. One of the best of those was the capstans patented and built by MacDonald Brothers of Portsoy
, in 1908.
The earliest purpose built fishing vessels were designed and made by David Allan (Born 1840 Orkney)In Leith in March of 1875, he converted a drifter to steam power.In 1877 it is said that he built the first screw propelled steam trawler in the world. This vessel was Pioneer LH854.She was of wooden construction with two masts and carried a gaff rigged main and mizen using booms, and a single forsail. Pioneer is mentioned in the Shetland Times of 4 May 1877. In 1878 he completed three steam-powered trawlers: Forward for Methven of Leith and Onward for Sharp and Murray of Cellardyke. In an interview with the Scotsman Mr. Allan stated that his motivation for auxiliary power was to increase the safety of fishermen. However local fishermen saw power trawling as a threat, remember that local boats of this period were 45 feet (13.7 m) or so, Mr. Allan's largest were 105 feet (32 m). Some landowners questioned the sustainability of fish stocks to power trawlers. The Lammas Drive of 1878 states" It was reported that D. Allan of Granton had built two steam drifters the Forward and the Onward. The latter was unable to get a Celardyke crew so she fished from Aberdeen." During this time Mr. Allan was also skippering the boats to ensure that they were successful in their catches.
In total he built ten boats at Leith between 1877 and 1881. Twenty-one boats were completed at Granton, his last vessel being Degrave in 1886. Because of the prejudices mentioned, most of these were sold to foreign owners, France, Belgium, Spain and the West Indies amongst them. A full, complete account of his ventures can be found on Grantontrawlers.com. David Allan was buried on Christmas Day in South Shields in 1911. On page 14 of the Daily Mirror of 27 December 1911 there is a photograph and a line drawing of Onward. It reads "The death was announced in South Shields of Mr David Allan, the founder of the steam fishing industry. In 1877 he designed and built the steam Drifter Onward especially for fishing purposes. He afterwards commanded and worked the vessel himself."
Steam fishing boats had many advantages. They were usually about 20 ft (6.1 m) than the sailing vessels so they could carry more nets and catch more fish. This was important, as the market was growing quickly at the beginning of the 20th century. They could travel faster and further and with greater freedom from weather, wind and tide. Because less time was spent travelling to and from the fishing grounds, more time could be spent fishing. The steam boats also gained the highest prices for their fish, as they could return quickly to harbour with their fresh catch. The main disadvantage of the steam boats, though, was their high operating costs. Their engines were mechanically inefficient and took up much space, while fuel and fitting out costs were very high. Before the First World War, building costs were between £3,000 and £4,000, at least three times the cost of the sail boats. To cover these high costs, they needed to fish for longer seasons. The higher expenses meant that more steam drifters were company-owned or jointly owned. As the herring fishing industry declined, steam boats became too expensive.
Petrol and paraffin engines began to be used in 1906. At first, they were mainly fitted to smaller boats of between 18 and 30 ft (5.5 and 9.1 ) in length, and they provided auxiliary power to assist the sails. However, as diesel engines became more powerful, the sails were replaced altogether, and the engines were fitted in larger and larger boats. Motor engines were relatively cheap, making them affordable to individual Fishermen. Early engines cost less than £100, and fuel costs were low. These boats also needed less maintenance than steam vessels. The two most popular engine brands were the Gardiner and Kelvin engines. The compact engines meant they could be fitted to existing sailing drifters such as Fifies and Zulus. The traditional Fifie style was better suited to the installation of a motor, which led to the custom building of a number of modified Fifie design boats with motors.
In 1920, though, the government changed the rules by removing the guaranteed price for the herring and prices dropped dramatically. In 1921, some Lossiemouth skippers noticed that the Danish
seine net boats were landing huge quantities of plaice and other white fish at the English east coast ports. Their interest resulted in a few buying some seine nets and winches and trying this form of fishing. As they perfected seine net fishing, more of the Lossiemouth fleet converted to seine net. But boat design for this type of fishing was still proving to be an obstacle. That, and the cost of the majority steam boats prompted a new style of fishing boat. John Campbell, nephew of William Campbell who designed the first Zulu boat built a wooden boat that resembled, to some extent, the "Fifie" but had a broad beam. His boat, the Marigold, did very well and over a relatively short period the entire Lossiemouth fleet (the first in Scotland) converted to the seine net. Other east coast ports followed on very quickly.
This the commonest of the towed fishing gear; it is also known as "otter trawling
". Trawl nets are shaped like a funnel with the sides extended ahead to guide the fish into the net. Otter boards (sometimes called "doors") spread the towing wires and keep the net open horizontally. The mouth of the net is held open vertically by the use of floats attached to the headline, while weight distributed along the ground rope allows the net to make good contact with the sea floor. The otter boards would scrape along the seabed making noises that attract fish. The fish would congregate between the boards keeping up with the them until they tired and the net would then overtake them. This method is used mainly to catch the demersal species such as cod, haddock, whiting and flatfish. The boats themselves can be less than 10 metres in length for inshore fishing to 60 metres or more for deep sea fishing.
With the decline in the volumes of roundfish, the growth in fishing for high-priced species such as monkfish and flatfish
is being seen. In this case, scraper trawls are used. The nets are shaped differently with a lower headline, longer wings allowing a greater area to be swept.
Scottish seining, sometimes called fly dragging, has the net attached to two long ropes usually made of leaded polypropylene and around 3 km in length. The net is deployed in a triangular fashion with the first rope attached to a marker buoy, the dhan, to which the boat returns to complete the set. Both ropes are then winched in as the boat steams ahead slowly. Winch speed is gradually increased as the net gets closer to keep the net moving forward and also to herd the fish into the net. Like the trawl, floats and weighted footrope keep the mouth of the net open and in contact with the seabed. This method of fishing takes place on grounds on the continental shelf and not in deep sea. Seine netting is for all forms of whitefish.
The beam trawl is one where a beam, up to 12 metres in length, is attached to a skid at each end. The beam is situated on top of the skids effectively keeping the top of the net open and the fish are channelled between the skids. Two beam trawls are deployed alongside each other from outrigger booms on each side of the boat. This method is primarily for taking flatfish but these vessels can be used also for scallop dredging.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
east coast fishery
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
has been in existence for more than a thousand years, spanning the Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
period right up to the present day.
A brief history
The fishery has always been for both whitefishFreshwater whitefish
The freshwater whitefish are fish of the subfamily Coregoninae in the salmon family Salmonidae. Along with the freshwater whitefish, the Salmonidae includes the freshwater and anadromous trout and salmon species as well as graylings...
and herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
. The Norsemen
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
came to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
from the 9th to 11th centuries and settled in the Northern Isles
Northern Isles
The Northern Isles is a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney...
, Western Isles and on the mainland. They had fish as a large part of their diet, and excavations of Viking sites in Orkney and Shetland have found middens (kitchen waste areas) containing large quantities of fish bones. These bones were mainly of cod, saithe and ling but herring, haddock and whiting bones were also found. They used the line fishing method with hooks and bait.
The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
had a near monopoly of the herring fishing from the 15th to the 17th centuries. The boats, called busses
Herring Buss
A herring buss was a type of sea-going fishing vessel, used by Dutch herring fishermen in the 15th through early 19th centuries.The buss ship type has a long history...
, were very large. They lay overnight with the drift net
Drift net
Drift netting is a fishing technique where nets, called drift nets, are allowed to float freely at the surface of a sea or lake. Usually a drift net is a gill net with floats attached to a rope along the top of the net, and weights attached to another rope along the foot of the net to keep the net...
s set to catch the herring and were hauled by hand in the morning. The herring were salted and placed in barrels. These barrels were then transferred to small boats called jagers, which were tenders to the busses. These boats took the fish to the markets.
The 18th century saw some Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
fishermen emulate this Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
method of fishing. In 1718, the government introduced the bounty system to promote large scale fishing. This meant that the government paid a bounty to the boat owner based on the tonnage of the vessel and would also pay a bounty to anyone for simply building a fishing boat. This continued until 1820 and did much to encourage the growth of the fishery. The fishery was valuable and the fleets often came under attack from French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
and Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
privateers. Because of this, armed ships were employed to accompany and defend the fishing boats. Despite this, the Dutch style of fishing didn’t produce the results the government wanted. The bulk of the Scottish fishery was still using the line and bait method in inshore waters. However, in 1785 the government instituted barrel bounties, which meant that the bounties were payable based on the amount of cured herring produced. This encouraged the herring curers to enter into contracts with the fishermen whereby they would be guaranteed a price for their catch.
The 19th century saw the greatest growth in sea fishing on the Scottish east coast. In the early years of that century the boats were very small, made of wood and were either one or two masted. They were not expensive to build and small repairs were carried out by the fishermen themselves. These early boats needed to be light so they could be dragged up the beaches.
The fishermen did not venture far from the shore, as these boats were undecked and unstable under stormy conditions. In 1848, a violent storm hit the country and 124 boats were sunk, and 100 fishermen lost their lives. The government appointed Captain John Washington to enquire into the disaster and to make recommendations (the Washington Report). He pointed out that the boats were too small and being without decks prone to water inundation. However, not all of the fishermen were happy about larger decked boats. They felt that heavier boats would be harder to row and decks would make it easier for men to be washed overboard. Also beaching the boats would be impossible. But a good many fishermen took a contrary view and felt that the decked boats was a good idea. They realised that the boats could fish further from the shore and would be better in storm conditions. Larger boats could hold more fish and so profits would be greater. The first decked boat was built in Eyemouth
Eyemouth
Eyemouth , historically spelt Aymouth, is a small town and civil parish in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is east of the main north-south A1 road and just north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It has a population of circa 3,420 people .The town's name comes from its location at...
in 1856 and this soon became the norm for the Scottish fishing fleet. These sail boats were of three main types: Skaffies, Fifies and Zulus. Common to all three types were the lugsale, hence their name - lugger
Lugger
A lugger is a class of boats, widely used as traditional fishing boats, particularly off the coasts of France, Scotland and England. It is a small sailing vessel with lugsails set on two or more masts and perhaps lug topsails.-Defining the rig:...
s. The need for the larger boats spurred on the building of harbours all along the east coast, in the 1850s and 1860s. This heralded an enormous change in the size of the herring fishery. Initially, the market for the pickled herring was Ireland and the West Indies where it was fed to slaves. The market received a setback in the 1830s following the ending of slavery on British-owned plantations and, from 1845 to 1851 when the Great Irish Famine forced a mass emigration from Ireland. However, improvements in curing techniques produced a superior product and soon meant that new markets opened up in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Baltic
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
countries.
The fishermen, with the support of the curers, invested in larger boats and additional nets. The fleet grew quickly but was still could only fish for herring during the two months when the fish were off the Scottish east coast. By 1880, there were around 7,000 Scottish boats involved in herring fishing so the fishing season needed to be extended. This led to a migration of a sizeable amount of boats and curers to the west coast in May and June. By 1880, the numbers of boats fishing the west coast numbered more than 1,000. In the 1860s, Scottish boats were also to be found in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
n waters for the Autumn fishing. Initially, Scottish curers were not present in any great numbers in this fishery but by the end of the 19th century large numbers were represented in Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
and Lowestoft
Lowestoft
Lowestoft is a town in the English county of Suffolk. The town is on the North Sea coast and is the most easterly point of the United Kingdom. It is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich...
. By this time, the Scottish fleet actually outnumbered the local one. The curers soon turned their attention to Shetland for the early summer fishing causing the local Shetland fishermen to adopt the drift net and larger boats. By the early 20th century, more than 1,800 boats fished the Shetland waters.
In 1884 the herring industry faced a crisis. The curers wanted an end to the contract system because they could not balance quantity and costs with market conditions and so wanted a move to an auction process. Fishermen wanted the status quo but reluctantly agreed and from 1887 the herring were auctioned.
The peak of the herring fishery industry and also its main decline came between 1900 and the First World War. Steam-powered fishing boats appeared towards the end of the 19th century and it was steam drifters that would take the volume of the catch to new heights. The powered winches allowed longer nets to be deployed and their speed enabled the boats to get to market quickly and to return to sea. In those early years of the 20th century, the Scottish catch reached 2 million barrels annually.
Before the First World War, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
were the main market for British herring. After the war, however, Germany was racked by inflation and was impoverished. Russia underwent the 1917 Revolution and civil war. Other European countries started to compete strongly with the British fleets and for twenty years the industry went into a steep decline. The beginnings of the seine net fishing began in Scotland in 1921 but the use of the large inefficient steam boats greatly hindered this new whitefish fishery. After the Second World War, the Scottish east coast fleet, with government assistance, was totally regenerated becoming mainly a whitefish industry. This in turn declined in the 1970s and 1980s due to overfishing and the subsequent imposition of quotas by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. The herring industry continued to shrink. From the 1960s, trawling and purse-netting were the main methods of pelagic fishing, which not only includes herring but also mackerel. Although a quota is placed on the total herring catch and with no limit on mackerel, this sector is now the healthiest in the Scottish fleet.
The Scandinavian influence
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
were skilled seamen and boat builders and their boat designs depended on their needs. Trading vessels were wide, to allow large cargo storage, while raiding boats were long and narrow and very fast. They all used the clinker
Clinker
Clinker may refer to:* Clinker , construction method for wooden boats* Clinker , waste from industrial processes* Clinker , a kilned then quenched cement product* Clinker brick, rough dark coloured bricks...
fashion of planking, i.e. the planks overlapped one another. The boats used for fishing were scaled-down versions of their cargo boats. The Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n influence affected boat building long after the Viking period came to an end. Yoles from the Orkney island of Stroma
Stroma, Scotland
Stroma is an island off the northern coast of the Scottish mainland. It is the more southerly of the two islands in the Pentland Firth between the Orkney Islands and Caithness. It is administratively part of Caithness , while its neighbour Swona, to the north, is part of the Orkney Islands...
were built in the same way as the Norse boats. Early Scottish boat builders copied the Scandinavian designs with their clinker planking and characteristic sharp stems and sterns.
The Skaffie
From the beginning of the 19th century a class of boat called the Skaffie appeared. These were favoured mainly in the Moray FirthMoray Firth
The Moray Firth is a roughly triangular inlet of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotland...
region. The early skaffie boats were small with rounded stems and raked sterns. They were two-masted with a tall dipping lugsail and a mizzen sail. Their short keel gave them good manoeuvrability in good weather, but they tended to be unstable in bad weather. They were usually crewed by around six people. Above all, though, they were light enough to be hauled up on to the beaches. The boats were un-decked and provided no shelter for the crew. Because of the vulnerability of the boats, they stayed only a few miles out to sea in full view of the land. These boats were gradually built bigger and could be around 42 feet (12.8 m) long, and partially decked. This came about because the harbours that were constructed from the mid to late19th century meant that the boats no longer needed to be beached. Skaffies were not built in any great numbers after 1900.
The Fifie
main article at FifieFifie
The Fifie is a design of sailing boat developed on the east coast of Scotland. It was a traditional fishing boat used by Scottish fishermen from the 1850s until well into the 20th century...
Carvel (boat building)
In boat building, carvel built or carvel planking is a method of constructing wooden boats and tall ships by fixing planks to a frame so that the planks butt up against each other, edge to edge, gaining support from the frame and forming a smooth hull...
planking, i.e. the planks were laid edge-to-edge instead of the overlapping clinker style of previous boats. Some boats were now being built up to about 70 feet (21.3 m) in length and were very fast.
The Zulu
In 1879, LossiemouthLossiemouth
Lossiemouth is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over a 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the past 250 years and consists of four separate communities that...
fisherman, William "Dad" Campbell came up with a radical design for his new boat. It had the vertical stem of the Fifie and the steeply raked stern of the Skaffie, and he called this boat Nonesuch, registration number INS 2118. She was relatively small, 52 feet (15.8 m) overall with a 39 feet (11.9 m). The Nonesuch had her registration closed on 12 January 1901 after having been broken up. The Zulu War raging in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
at the time gave the name to this new class of boat.
The Zulu boats were built to the carvel
Carvel
Carvel is an ice cream franchise owned by Focus Brands. Carvel is best known for their soft serve ice cream and ice cream cakes, which feature a layer of distinctive 'crunchies'. It also sells a variety of novelty ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches....
method of planking, which was much stronger than the clinker
Clinker (boat building)
Clinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks and, in the early nineteenth century, iron plates to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the individual planks...
system. The shape of the Zulus gave the boats a long deck but a shorter keel, which greatly improved their manoeuvrability. Zulus were two-masted boats and carried three sails - fore, mizzen and jib. The sails were very heavy and difficult to haul, and the masts had to be very long and strong. Masts could be 60 feet (18.3 m) tall on boats of 80 feet (24.4 m) in length. Their design produced very fast boats that became invaluable to herring fishing fleets. They got to the fishing grounds quickly and returned swiftly with the catch. Because of these qualities, the Zulus rapidly became very popular along the entire east coast. As the 20th century approached, steam capstans were introduced, and this made the hauling of the sails and nets much easier for the crews. One of the best of those was the capstans patented and built by MacDonald Brothers of Portsoy
Portsoy
Portsoy is a burgh in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly in the county of Banffshire. The original name of the town was Pert Soaidh, which translates as 'The wooded place of the warriors...
, in 1908.
The steam boat
The earliest steam powered fishing boats first appeared in the 1890s and used the trawl system of fishing as well as lines and drift nets. These were large boats, usually 80–90 ft (24.4–27.4 ) in length with a beam of around 20 feet (6.1 m). They weighed 40-50 tons and travelled at 9–11 kn (4.9–6 ). The first steam boats were made of wood, but steel hulls were soon introduced and were divided into watertight compartments. They were well designed for the crew with a large building that contained the wheelhouse and the deckhouse. The boats built in the 20th century only had a mizzen sail, which was used to help steady the boat when its nets were out. The main function of the mast was now as a crane for lifting the catch ashore. They also had a steam capstan on the foredeck near the mast for hauling nets. The boats had narrow, high funnels so that the steam and thick coal smoke was released high above the deck and away from the fishermen. These funnels were nicknamed woodbines because they looked like the popular brand of cigarette. These boats had a crew of twelve made up of a skipper, driver, fireman (to look after the boiler) and nine deck hands.The earliest purpose built fishing vessels were designed and made by David Allan (Born 1840 Orkney)In Leith in March of 1875, he converted a drifter to steam power.In 1877 it is said that he built the first screw propelled steam trawler in the world. This vessel was Pioneer LH854.She was of wooden construction with two masts and carried a gaff rigged main and mizen using booms, and a single forsail. Pioneer is mentioned in the Shetland Times of 4 May 1877. In 1878 he completed three steam-powered trawlers: Forward for Methven of Leith and Onward for Sharp and Murray of Cellardyke. In an interview with the Scotsman Mr. Allan stated that his motivation for auxiliary power was to increase the safety of fishermen. However local fishermen saw power trawling as a threat, remember that local boats of this period were 45 feet (13.7 m) or so, Mr. Allan's largest were 105 feet (32 m). Some landowners questioned the sustainability of fish stocks to power trawlers. The Lammas Drive of 1878 states" It was reported that D. Allan of Granton had built two steam drifters the Forward and the Onward. The latter was unable to get a Celardyke crew so she fished from Aberdeen." During this time Mr. Allan was also skippering the boats to ensure that they were successful in their catches.
In total he built ten boats at Leith between 1877 and 1881. Twenty-one boats were completed at Granton, his last vessel being Degrave in 1886. Because of the prejudices mentioned, most of these were sold to foreign owners, France, Belgium, Spain and the West Indies amongst them. A full, complete account of his ventures can be found on Grantontrawlers.com. David Allan was buried on Christmas Day in South Shields in 1911. On page 14 of the Daily Mirror of 27 December 1911 there is a photograph and a line drawing of Onward. It reads "The death was announced in South Shields of Mr David Allan, the founder of the steam fishing industry. In 1877 he designed and built the steam Drifter Onward especially for fishing purposes. He afterwards commanded and worked the vessel himself."
Steam fishing boats had many advantages. They were usually about 20 ft (6.1 m) than the sailing vessels so they could carry more nets and catch more fish. This was important, as the market was growing quickly at the beginning of the 20th century. They could travel faster and further and with greater freedom from weather, wind and tide. Because less time was spent travelling to and from the fishing grounds, more time could be spent fishing. The steam boats also gained the highest prices for their fish, as they could return quickly to harbour with their fresh catch. The main disadvantage of the steam boats, though, was their high operating costs. Their engines were mechanically inefficient and took up much space, while fuel and fitting out costs were very high. Before the First World War, building costs were between £3,000 and £4,000, at least three times the cost of the sail boats. To cover these high costs, they needed to fish for longer seasons. The higher expenses meant that more steam drifters were company-owned or jointly owned. As the herring fishing industry declined, steam boats became too expensive.
The seine netter
In 1920, though, the government changed the rules by removing the guaranteed price for the herring and prices dropped dramatically. In 1921, some Lossiemouth skippers noticed that the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
seine net boats were landing huge quantities of plaice and other white fish at the English east coast ports. Their interest resulted in a few buying some seine nets and winches and trying this form of fishing. As they perfected seine net fishing, more of the Lossiemouth fleet converted to seine net. But boat design for this type of fishing was still proving to be an obstacle. That, and the cost of the majority steam boats prompted a new style of fishing boat. John Campbell, nephew of William Campbell who designed the first Zulu boat built a wooden boat that resembled, to some extent, the "Fifie" but had a broad beam. His boat, the Marigold, did very well and over a relatively short period the entire Lossiemouth fleet (the first in Scotland) converted to the seine net. Other east coast ports followed on very quickly.
The trawler
Today, trawl fishing is the main industrial method of catching white fish. These trawlers and can catch and store massive amounts of fish. They possess highly sensitive electronic equipment and remove the chance element from fishing. They operate by trawling the nets along the sea bed where the kind of fish they want to catch are located.Bottom trawling – single boat
Trawling
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net that is used for trawling is called a trawl....
". Trawl nets are shaped like a funnel with the sides extended ahead to guide the fish into the net. Otter boards (sometimes called "doors") spread the towing wires and keep the net open horizontally. The mouth of the net is held open vertically by the use of floats attached to the headline, while weight distributed along the ground rope allows the net to make good contact with the sea floor. The otter boards would scrape along the seabed making noises that attract fish. The fish would congregate between the boards keeping up with the them until they tired and the net would then overtake them. This method is used mainly to catch the demersal species such as cod, haddock, whiting and flatfish. The boats themselves can be less than 10 metres in length for inshore fishing to 60 metres or more for deep sea fishing.
With the decline in the volumes of roundfish, the growth in fishing for high-priced species such as monkfish and flatfish
Flatfish
The flatfish are an order of ray-finned fish, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through and around the head during development...
is being seen. In this case, scraper trawls are used. The nets are shaped differently with a lower headline, longer wings allowing a greater area to be swept.
Bottom trawling – two boats
In pair trawling, each boat has a wire fastened to the net. Because of this, otterboards are not required to hold the mouth of the net open, as the boats maintain at their maximum a distance apart of around 0.25 nautical mile (0.463 km). The boats, because they share the load, can be smaller and less powerful yet can tow relatively large gear. These boats can be anything from 15 to 30 metres in length and have a typical combined power of 1000 hp. Again, this form of fishing is mainly for demersal species.Seine netting
Twin beam trawling
Twin rig trawl
This method is to use two trawls side by side. Three wires attach to this combination. Instead of having individual wires connected to each of the nets sides, a common wire attaches to the two inner sides and the outer sides of each net are wired individually. Again otter boards allow the net mouths to spread apart horizontally while floats and ground ropes provide the vertical forces. This gear is usually used for catching target fish such as monkfish, flatfish and nephrops.Fishing for pelagic species (fish occurring in mid and upper water)
Pelagic gears are designed to catch species such as herring, mackerel, scad, blue whiting and sprats. However pelagic fishing from boats from the Scottish east coast ports normally catch herring and an amount of blue whiting from the northern North Sea.Methods
- Single boat pelagic trawl – similar to the demersal trawl but the gear is generally lighter, as it does not have to cope with dragging across the seabed.
- Pelagic pair trawling – operate in a similar method to the demersal pair trawl and again with lighter gear.
Ancillary industries
- Boat Builders
- Fish Curers
- Coopers
- Net Makers
- Rope Makers
- Sale Makers
- Fish Salesmen (auctioneers) and Ship Chandlers
- Fish Processors