The Price of Fish

The Price of Fish

 

Skipper of ZIG ZAG had a Fish Supper in Kilkeel just recently. The Fish cost a whopping £ 3.75. It was a beautiful big piece of Haddock - the best fish in the sea, according to my father.

 

I must admit - ashamedly - that I felt the £ 3.75 to be a bit on the stiff side. And then I remembered. I am from a fishing town, Fleetwood. I was weaned and reared on fresh fish, three times a day, every day. Four times some days. Both of my Grandfathers were Fleetwood Trawlermen, one of them a skipper, one a first mate - Bob 'The Rebel' Scott and Albert 'Spud' Mayor.

 

As a youngster, both of my Grandfathers told me many stories. A recurring one was of visits to the Scottish Islands of St Kilda, on their way to/from the Icelandic fishing grounds ( or 'Kildas', as they called them ). Prior to the final evacuation of those resolute islanders in 1953, Fleetwood trawlers regularly dropped off supplies of whiskey, fresh spuds, vegetables and meat, and picked up mail to be posted on the mainland for the islanders.

 

 

 
....below is a picture taken on St Kilda, by Bob Scott, when skipper of  Fleetwood Trawler, FD 397 'Harry Melling', 1920's...

...and what St Kilda looks like now...

 

They told of crew members having to chip ice off the superstructure, in howling winter gales, to stop the boat capsizing. They told of 6 week trips to Iceland, when fishing was at its best, and the weather at its worst. And they told of friends lost over the side, and Fleetwood Trawlers, lost with all hands - the Red Falcon, for one, in 1959 if my memory serves me.

 

And 'Spud' told me about of my Great Grandfather, Thomas Nicholson. His boat was sunk by a German U-Boat in WW1 on the 1 st of Feb 1917, between the Scottish and Northern Irish coasts at Dhuheartach Light, southern Hebrides. He was a crew member of the Fleetwood Trawler ST 'Fanny' - FD 89 - lost with all 13 hands. His brother Hugh Nicholson was the cook. No bodies were recovered.

  

I thought that the weather in  Iceland for these maritime men of iron could not have been as bad as they said.....and then I looked on Youtube.

 

I will gladly pay the price of a fish supper in future......