Written by Jerry Thompson
Our charity, the Hull Bullnose Heritage Group were awarded a grant of £2,000 to purchase trawlermen’s sea day records so families can have a copy of their father, uncle, brother, husband and friends’ sea records to see the various path and rank a trawlerman made in the fishing industry as they gained experience and rank from galley-boy to sometimes skipper.
The family members we have visit the Hull Fishing Heritage Centre we ask for instance where was your father when you were born. On many occasions, they say I am not sure, and when a family member is lost at sea, that they can see the trips and rank in path of life in the ships they sailed in.
We ask when they request a record that, if possible could they please help to supply us with photos to place alongside the records on our web page www.hullbullnoseheritagegroup.co.uk, we also provide a photograph of every trawler they sailed in. In many cases we have photographs of the persons they are requiring the record of as we have an archive of over 200,000 photos of the crew ships and other industry related workforce. The web page can be viewed by family members from around the world as a reference to the younger members to help with family tree research as the records also give where the family lived through the trawlermen’s career.
To date we have over 900+ trawlermen’s sea records. The response we have from family members is one of sometimes tears of proud respect and community spirit knowing their blood relation is from the Hessle Road fishing community that we all can hold our heads high knowing we as a community who lost over 6,000 gallant men in 912 ships in two world wars and in peace times by simply putting food on our nations tables.
