WK 119 Alert was one of the Wick "day fleet" as they were called, a seine netter, skipper Robert More
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WK 119 Alert was one of the Wick "day fleet" as they were called, a seine netter, skipper Robert More
Hi, I'm looking for any information on a M/V Dove WK 296 that my Grandfather was a deckhand on in 1938, the description I believe to be correct but I can find no record of it anywhere. Noticed you have a fair list and seem to know your boats can you help?
Hi, I'm looking for any information on a M/V Dove WK 296 that my Grandfather was a deckhand on in 1938, the description I believe to be correct but I can find no record of it anywhere. Noticed you have a fair list and seem to know your boats can you help?Quote:
Originally Posted by peter macdonald
I worked for the grocers next door to Donnie angus and we supplied the boats also my father was on the quiet waters also my cousin William reid also Norrie bremner
yours don shearer
I was a message boy with Donnie Angus in 1966-68 Willie Cogill ?? was the other butcher working there,was a great boss,loved every minute of delivering the meat to the boats,there were so many in the day.Its sad to see it so empty of fishing boats when I visit.
I'm not sure if this link has been posted before, gives some information and nice pictures of some of the boats from the towns past.
just click on the boats your interested in.
https://pihlsite.wordpress.com/2016/...fishing-boats/
An incredible number of boats and pics.
Thanks Hen, that's a great site, just been looking at some of the Thurso and Scrabster boats.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hen Broon
Thanks for that Hen, great resource.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hen Broon
I don't know how to work this site. Perhaps someone could point me in the right direction! I'm trying to track the history of a Stroma yole (WK431) for Orkney Historic Boat Society. She was bullt on Stroma around the end of the 19C and registered for fishing by Stroma man David Manson in 1912. The registration was closed in 1941. What happened to her after that? Any leads would be very much appreciated>
I asked my Dad about this and he asked another person who used to live on Stroma . They provided copy of a newspaper article that said the boat sank in 1974. `3 men were on board : skipper Sandy Gunn, Ackergill ; Robert Munro. Staxigoe and a temporary hand`. The boat was holed on rocks at the NW corner of Stroma. All were rescued, moments before it sank. The Longhope lifeboat and `Stroma Isle`raced to help. It was the `M.V. Viking`, skippered by James Simpson, Canisbay, who was line-fishing in the area, that hauled the `Tern` off the rocks.
I hope this is of some help.
UNIQUE STEAM DRIFTER LOTTIE 'SAILS' HOME TO WICK
WK15 model - an item by Bill Mowat - http://community.caithness.org/article.php?id=6361
I read your post and search history related to boat sank in 1974 so i find that "e webQuote:
Originally Posted by noggin
The fishing vessel Gaul was a deep sea factory ship based at Hull, United Kingdom. She sank some time on the night of the 8-9 February 1974 in storm conditions in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. Thirty-six crew were lost in the worst peacetime disaster to befall the UK fishing " is this true or not......?
kindly conform year of that newspaper or any other details for this article....?
Opportune WK171
The Opportune has left fishing and in case anyone missed the story it was in the John O'Groat Journal 19th November 2019.
https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk...-years-186498/
Written by Jean Gunn - Reporter - Photos on the link above.
AFTER a career spanning 40 years the Wick-registered fishing boat Opportune (WK171) has landed her last catch.
The seine-netter was given a fond farewell as she set sail from Scrabster on Sunday evening en route to Peterhead on the first stage of her voyage to Hartlepool, where she will take up a new role in the offshore wind sector.
To mark the occasion, the owners, Bremner Fishing Company, donated the last box of fish from the boat to the Seafarers Memorial Group in Wick.
At the auction the box of cod was sold for £150 to Scrabster Seafoods, with another five buyers – H & D Calder, Thomson International Ltd, Bell's Seafood, JPL Shellfish (Scotland) Ltd and Fish in Crieff – all donating £100 each. Scrabster Seafoods also put in an additional £100, with the Bremner Fishing Company bringing the total raised up to £1000.
Owner Andrew Bremner explained: "Normally when a new boat starts service it is tradition that you donate your first box of fish for charity. We just thought it would be nice to to donate the last box of fish out of the Opportune after 40 years at sea.
"There is no memorial in Wick for seafarers and we are trying to help raise funds to put up a fitting memorial on the Braehead."
On the decision to sell the boat, Mr Bremner said: "It was always part of the long-term plan when we built the new Boy Andrew three years ago that we would go down to operating one boat."
He went on to say that the present fish quotas had also influenced the decision.
The timing was also aimed to coincide with the retiral of the skipper David Fraser, of Lybster, who received a lifetime achievement award for his services earlier this year.
Mr Bremner said: "The Oppertune was built in 1979 for my father. I was skipper on board for seven years before David Fraser took over for the last 33 years.
"She has been an extremely successful boat and has given employment to local fishermen over the many years she has been here. First of all she was called the Boy Andrew III and was built in the Campbeltown shipyard in 1979."
He added; "I would personally like to thank all the crewmen, past and present, who have been on board the Boy Andrew/Opportune."
The reality of it all has not quite sunk in yet with the skipper, who has spent 40 years on the same boat, as his duties in the wheelhouse will not come to an end until he delivers the Opportune to her new owners in Hartlepool where she will take up duties as a guard ship at an offshore wind farm.
First the seine-netter will be spending a few days in Peterhead where she will have her WK171 registration swapped for HL6. Then in around a week's time she will set off for County Durham.
"I will not be fishing on her again," Mr Fraser said. "It has been my home for 40 years and it will be strange when I finally come ashore from Hartlepool. I am 65 now and cannot go on for ever."
The retiring skipper, who has been with the company since March 1974, added: "We have had the same crew for about 20 years. It is the end of the line."
The other crew members of the Wick-registered boat are Michael Munro, Lybster, Alistair Jappy, Helmsdale, David Mackay, Wick, Keith Macadie, Wick, and Magnus Cowie, Helmsdale, who will also be retiring.
Bremner Fishing Company hopes to be able to employ the remaining four members of crew on the Boy Andrew, working a rota system.
Such a shame that even this close to Independence Day, that the EU and the CFP is still causing the demise of the local fishing fleet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Fernie
This from Graeme Goodall in Buckie, Moray.
Scottish Fishing
LIVING in Moray, I found it infuriating to see placards everywhere depicting a smiling Haddock draped in the Union Jack proclaiming that a vote to leave the EU would “Save Our Fishing”.
Moray was the closest-run district in the whole of Scotland in the EU referendum, with entire family dynasties with links to fishing casting their vote to leave based purely on the misguided mantra that the EU is responsible for the demise of the fishing industry in Scotland.
As a former fisherman during the 1980s, and at that time part owner of new-built 65-foot trawler, I think it is time for all of our fishing communities to face up to some hard truths about the fishing industry and at whom the finger of blame for its demise should be pointed.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Scottish fleet had become the biggest and most powerful in Europe, to the point where the catching power far outstripped the resource. Boatyards were booming and so were the local economies.
The vast majority of these vessels, however, including the one in which I was a partner, were built with the help of a 50 per cent EU grant. Without this, the boat could never have been built. The same applies to the vast majority of boats built in Scotland in that era.
As this new generation of boats, equipped with the cutting-edge of fish-finding equipment, became larger and ever more powerful, the need to catch more fish to fund them increased. New methods of pair trawling utilising much heavier and larger nets were developed, as well as twin-rig trawling with one powerful vessel towing two large nets. This effectively rendered no single area of the seabed, including the spawning grounds, safe from the Scottish fleets’ nets. Many owners had two rotating crews that would change over straight after landing so that the vessel turned right around and was constantly at sea, hammering the fishing grounds seven days a week.
A Catch-22 situation was created where the large boats were so expensive to run and heavily financed that they couldn’t afford to stop fishing for a single day!
By the end of the early 1990s the fish stocks were utterly devastated, with landings down vastly year on year and cod on the brink of extinction and haddock and whiting heading the same way. Extreme action had to be taken, with quota cuts and days at sea being introduced by the EU as the stark scientific data was presented but almost immediately and unsurprisingly dismissed by fishing industry leaders as unproven nonsense.
The EU grants for new vessels had stopped, but young ambitious skippers then turned to the big banks to finance even more powerful super trawlers being built both at Scottish and European yards, which were designed to work in the most extreme conditions at the outer reaches of the continental shelf and Rockall. The traditional inner waters had now been fished out and decimated, not by the EU but by our own Scottish fleet. The EU finally took drastic action when many fish species teetered on the brink of never recovering, and quotas were immediately cut again to the point where the new larger vessels were struggling to stay viable.
To rein in the size of the fleet, a short-term decommissioning incentive scheme based on the vessels’ tonnage and horsepower was introduced, with a maximum compensation of £1 million for the largest vessels. Skippers who had gambled by building multimillion-pound vessels at foreign yards now found themselves at the mercy of the banks to whom they had turned to finance their venture. Cold, hard economics of the banks decided the fate of many young north-east skippers as the unsympathetic banks decided to cut their losses at the fear of further quota cuts and grab the decommissioning payment while it was available, resulting in almost brand new multimillion-pound vessels sailing to the scrapyards of Denmark to be cut up and their owners made bankrupt with their livelihoods in ruins. Many other boat-owners decided to accept the decommissioning grants as well due to a mass migration of crews to the oil industry, adding to the already intolerable stress of trying to stay viable in impossible circumstances.
Today, fish stocks are recovering to healthy levels, but only thanks to EU intervention. Had the Scottish fleet been allowed to continue as it was the end-game would have been the same for the fleet, but there would have been no fish stocks today and no recovery. Many fishing families fished ethically, but if fishermen – especially those from that era who are blaming the EU while waving a Union Jack – need to point the finger at anyone for the tragic demise of the industry and our communities, then I suggest they take a good long look in the mirror.
Another interesting article on the UK fishing industry; https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-uk-government
An interesting piece. Thanks for posting.
During the 80's I served in the Royal Navy Fishery Protection Squadron. Back then the Royal Navy had over 20 vessels dedicated to this task. All the ships were based at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Rosyth. On some occasions, Royal Air Force Nimrod aircraft would assist us. The Government back then spent a lot of money to protect our fishing grounds. It was still not enough as the majority of arrests we made were for excessive quotes caught & undersized nets. In all the time I served in the FPS, less than a handful of arrested fishing boats were UK registered. Most were from Europe, particularly one large country who were infamous for illegal fishing. In my experience UK fishermen were not the problem for our dwindling fish stocks.
Having had some time to read and digest the above 2 very interesting posts, what can we glean?
A quick Google soon finds Graeme Goodalls Twitter page - @graemegoodall29 - which features an aerial photo of Findochty Harbour, and where Mr Goodall describes himself as
"Engineer and Scottish Independence to the absolute core."
His webpage is referred to as "stickyertvlicenceupyerarse.com" and his location is patriotically stated as being in Stavangar, Norway. So not quite the Buckie fisherman he may first appear.
Aside from his eloquncy in picking websites to link to on his Twitter page, he seems to be a prolific and vociferous contributor to Scexit supporting website's, including that of his fellow Scottish patriot who lives in Bath, who runs the Wings over Scotland blog.
So it might be expected that Mr Goodall has opinions that are aligned with the SNP and the Scexiteers.
The second posting seems to come from someone with a lot more industry experience.
In all, very interesting reading, and a few revelations once you start investigating a bit deeper.
A good bit of research orkneycadian, well done. While we're on the subject of fishing; I did read somewhere that the UK has been the only member state of the EU to allow the selling on of Fishing Quotas, many of 'our' quotas have gone to Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese fishing companies. Can you throw any light on this?Quote:
Originally Posted by orkneycadian