Trawlers and Trawler Folk , livre ebook

Pneuma Springs Publishing - Ernest Cleveland

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76 pages

English

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Description

Ernest's second book follows on from the story told in St Vincent's Home Boys. It traces his adventures in the Humber fishing fleet between the wars.Following family tradition Ernest signed up on a trawler bound for Icelandic waters. Thus his career In the fishing industry began by working from the city of Kingston upon Hull in several vessels such as the Thomas Hardy and the Cape Barfleur. Enduring the hardships of year-round deep sea fishing in the North Sea and off Iceland and Greenland, Ernest developed a deep love of the sea and the natural beauties around him, while observing with wry humour the human stories and characters of his crew-mates. This book also describes the profound changes in the fishing industry that took place during Ernest's years at sea. Book reviews online @ www.publishedbestsellers.com

Sujets

Condado de Yorkshire (Reino Unido)

Fishing

Hameçonnage

Yorkshire

Informations

Publié par	Pneuma Springs Publishing
Date de parution	30 juin 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782281955
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0195€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Trawlers and Trawler Folk

Ernest Cleveland
Copyright
First Published in 2009 by: Pneuma Springs Publishing
Trawlers and Trawler Folk Copyright © 2009 Ernest Cleveland
Kindle eISBN: 9781782280224 ePub eISBN: 9781782281955 PDF eBook eISBN: 9781782281061 Paperback ISBN: 9781905809677
Contribution and Editing by: Barrie Cleveland, Jonathan Monk & Margaret Monk
Pneuma Springs Publishing E: admin@pneumasprings.co.uk W: www.pneumasprings.co.uk
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Published in the United Kingdom. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.
Acknowledgements

This book was written by Ernest Cleveland
with additional material from his son Barrie Cleveland and editing by daughter Margaret and grandson Jonathan Monk.

Ernest also thanks his brother Charles, an ex trawler skipper, who initially helped in the creation of this book, being a factual record covering a period of twenty-five years experience in the Hull Fishing Industry.

Most of the photographs and drawings are from Ernest’s collection; therefore the origin of some is unknown.

About the author
Ernest was born into a fishing tradition in Kingston upon Hull in 1910 at 3 Park View cottages, Diversion Rd.
His father, as his grandfather and great grandfather before him, was a fisherman originating from Margate in Kent in the mid 19 th century.
Whilst his father was at sea Ernest’s mother died when he was just eight years of age thus leaving him, his three brothers and his sister alone. He then had to find help and St Vincent’s, one of many orphanages in the city, answered the call. Ernest, along with his three brothers, was looked after by the Sisters of Charity.
At the age of fourteen he left St Vincent’s and, as many others did, signed up as deckie learner on his first deep sea trawler heading for Iceland, spending the next 15 years in the fishing industry and achieving a boatswain’s ticket in 1930.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Ernest then moved into the Merchant Navy Fishing section and eventually into the Royal Navy (Harry Tate’s Navy), mostly doing escort duty in the Indian Ocean.
While stationed in Ipswich, Ernest met Dorothy Pulham and in 1942 they married. At the end of the war they set up home in Hull, and Ernest went back to fishing until 1950 when he continued his link with the sea by taking a position as Fishery Officer with the North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee. This involved a move to Hartlepool with his wife, son and daughter. In Hartlepool the couple completed their family with another son.
Ernest retired in 1975 and began to devote his spare time to his family and to his hobbies of painting and writing his memoirs.
When Ernest died in 1985 his book had not been published. In 2007 we decided to undertake the task of editing his memoirs for publication and incorporating supporting information from our own researches.
Barrie Cleveland, Margaret and Jonathan Monk
(son, daughter and grandson)
Contents

1. My Grandfather and life in the fishing community as a child
2. My early sea trips; fleet fishing; technological advances and new, distant fishing grounds
3. Arctic fishing conditions; accidents and emergencies at sea
4. Sea rescue; changes in fishing patterns; spectacular storms
5. Faroe Islands and whaling; emergency repairs at sea; developing technologies; relations between skippers and owners
6. Fishing off Iceland; the fate of HMS Rawalpindi; washed overboard
7. Illegal fishing; polar ice; life on board; life onshore between trips
8. The hazards of bad weather
9. Fishing diversification; unusual catches
10. Fishing off Greenland; icebergs; landing the catch
11. The fishing community in Hull; returning to Iceland; reminiscences of Iceland fishing; ship hulls
12. Fishing in the White Sea; training at Hull Nautical School
13. Fishing off Lapland; depth sounding technology
14. Developing technologies; catching Gannets; my new passion for motorcycling; back to Iceland
15. Competition between trawlers; vessels lost at sea, seizing life onshore, exploratory voyages
16. Iceland in the 1920’s; Christmas in the fishing community; sailing on the Cape Matapan in bad conditions
17. Difficult winter trips; sailing as mate; changes in the fishing industry after my time
Appendix 1
Map of Barents Sea showing Bear Island
CHAPTER ONE
It was through listening spellbound to my grandfather’s stirring and often told tales of his lifetime at sea in the fishing smacks of the period 1880 to 1915, sailing the North Sea and distant waters, that decided my future, however strongly my father (also a trawler skipper) tried to discourage me. Being unable to read or write, my grandfather, like many of his kind, skippered smacks to sea, netted a quantity of fish and returned home by the sole means of sails and manpower. It was their way of life and their livelihood. To lay off a course on their ancient vaguely drawn charts, matchsticks were laid in line from point to point, which gave a measure of the distance too. In those days, a beginner had to join a smack as cook then work his way up. The skipper’s ticket was a servitude one showing time served sea-going. Incidentally, it was my grandfather who devised and first used a towing block, a device which held the trawl warps above the propeller to enable the vessel to manoeuvre, greatly reducing the risk of having a trawl warp cut or tangled round the prop (a nasty predicament, especially in bad weather).
My grandfather was almost as broad as he was high, and a stern disciplinarian: a flippant answer to a query would bring a strong rebuke. There was a selection of meerschaum pipes in a wall rack next to a large barometer encased in brass, awarded for bravery at sea in rescuing the crew of a smack. There was a heavy leather belt draped over a chair he always slept in. I once handled the belt, he told me that was the proper place for it, never to wear one, and that he had never had a good reason to use it. The mere sight of such a chastiser was sufficient to make me behave myself.
The women folk of this community lived a lifetime of hardship and hard work. Their time away from housework was fully occupied in knitting thick, white abbs (fishermen’s underwear), sea boot stockings and blue or white Guernseys ( Ganseys ). In fine weather this would be done in the company of neighbours sitting on high backed chairs outside their front doors.

The whole street of terraced houses huddled together housing one big family, with practically all the men folk sea-going or to do with ships. In every front window were the aspidistra and the model ship and in the background was the gleam of polished brass. Heavy ornate velvet draped the mantelpiece under which was a long brass rod for drying and airing clothes. Every house had its rocking chair but even well into the 1920’s many had neither gas, electricity nor flush toilets. All the year round, large coal fires were a necessity. The fireplaces shone with black lead and brass fire irons. Outside, doorsteps were stoned daily and the pavement scrubbed down to the curb-stones. Few women possessed a coat; a knitted shawl was fashionable, popular and easily made.
I remember one amusing incident my grandfather used to relate with a chuckle; late one night he was surprised to hear heavy rainfall striking the large tin bath that hung outside the kitchen window. Puzzled, since his weather glass had never let him down before; he tapped it before going outside to find one of his sons using his bedroom window instead of coming down to the yard.
One yarn was of a lad who started sea-going as cook and on his first night he forgot to soak the peas for the following day. This forgetfulness upset the crew, naturally, so he had to place a pan of peas on the deck one side of the rigging and an empty pan on the opposite side, he then had to transfer the peas from one pan to the other by taking one pea at a time, up the rigging and down the other side. Another drastic punishment could have ended in tragedy when one member of the crew was, for a short while, towed astern alongside the trawl. Some voyages to distant grounds could last over several weeks making the maintenance of discipline difficult.
CHAPTER TWO
On leaving school in 1924, at the age of thirteen, my life at sea began as a ‘deckie’ learner on an Icelandic-bound trawler from the port of Hull. The duration of each trip was three weeks more or less from dock to dock, the catches being packed on ice. The return journey to Iceland generally took about eight days and nights, when steaming around ten knots, and thirteen days on the fishing grounds, not always fishing. Conditions and the weather had to be reckoned with. Weekly wages were paid, plus a small share of the sum the catch sold for, less the vessel’s expenses. If the total realised was insufficient to meet the expenses, the crew had the privilege of contributing a share to meet them, for having been on board. At that time (1926) most vessels had paraffin oil or carbide lamps as the only means of lighting, while some were slowly being equipped with dynamos. To hoist a paraffin light to the masthead in a rough sea would try the patience of Job. I’ve seen the most placid go berserk, and the most resolute reduced to the depths of despair trying to achieve this. After two trips, my next venture was to sign on a smaller steam trawler of one of the two remaining boxer fleets. Each fleet was made up of about twenty-five smallish steam trawlers: one was the Red Cross fleet, having a red cross on their funnels, the other the Gamecock with the namesake on their funnels.
The vessels were at sea for five to six weeks and fished in convoys. Each fleet had an Admiral in the leading ship and the rest trawled astern. They did no