Hull Maritime volunteer, Julie Corbett talks to former trawlermen who worked on the Arctic Corsair. Here they share some of their memories.
Listening to Terry, Billy and Albert was delightful. Billy had brought an invoice detailing the cost of fishing. This was not confined to fuel. The money made from a catch paid for everything. This was not a job with a traditional wage and bonuses. I do not fully understand how it worked but ice, kit hire, food all these things came before the earnings of the individual on the trawler. You could be away fishing for three weeks and land a catch of fish and earn nothing.
Crew also had to buy everything they needed to work on a trawler, such as Oil Skins (Wet Weather Gear) Thigh Boots - Wellingtons, Gutting Gloves, Knives, Bedding even your Mattress (Known as a Donkey’s Breakfast) One could only buy these from what was known as the ‘Stores’ on St Andrews Dock which was owned by the Trawler Owners.
There was one portion of potential earnings from a trip that the crew did keep without deductions. This was from the sale of fish liver oil that was processed on board. Billy and Albert (charmingly) sang this ditty together.
‘How much oil, can Billy Boyle boil
When Billy Boyle boils the oil’
Albert sailed on the Arctic Corsair once. In 1962. He sailed on Christmas eve. He took a taxi to St Andrew’s dock. He got this trip because few men wanted to sail that Christmas. He said it was the harshest trip he went on. The highlight was that it was a good catch. The market for the catch was profitable as limited fish was landed that week. He was one of the few men at the beginning of 1963 on Hessle Road with money in his pocket.
The elegantly woven item above is a fish room filter. This would be attached to a suction hose in the fish room. As the ice in the fish room melted during the trip the water ran into a well that had to be regularly pumped out. The filter stopped any offal from clogging the pump. The fish room in the trawler was where fish was stored in pounds. This was called shelving. Shelves were made up of aluminium boards. Boards, Ice, Fish, ice until the pound was full.
Figure 3 below shows the Arctic Corsair hauling in Clement Weather, A Strong Wind and Heavy Rain, Thankfully No Ice.
In the photo above you can see the Cow Hides attached to the Cod End. The Cow Hides were to protect the Cod End as it was dragged along the Seabed.
Billy also sailed on the Arctic Corsair through the ranks and finally as Mate after it had been converted to mid-water trawling for mackerel on the South Coast of England and Blue Whiting off the Outer Hebrides. The catch would then be transferred in large Russian Factory Trawlers known as Klondykers
There were two things Billy suggested that were unique to Hull’s fishing industry, first the two-foot stick. This was exactly that. A stick cut and marked with inches to the length of two feet.
An imperial Half-Penny known as a (Ha’penny) was used as a standard measure as its diameter was one inch. These rigid sticks were used to measure any and everything.
The second was the Boat-Hook, Known in Hull as the (Tomahawk) which was used to grab lines or anything else over the side of the vessel.
Billy’s dad was skipper on the Arctic Corsair from 1960 to 1968. The year Albert had his trip was a successful one.
The men’s reminiscences were full of the names of the men they had sailed with. They touched quite lightly on the dangers of the industry. I asked them about extreme weather conditions. Billy said before 1968, and the triple trawler tragedy ice axes were not regular equipment on board ships.
After 1968 ice axes were kept on the bridge ready for use if ice started to build up on the vessel with the freezing sea water spray.
I had a lovely couple of hours listening to Albert, Terry, and Billy. Keeping the stories of the fishing industry alive is especially important to them. I love to hear about those everyday, almost random things. My favourite from this talk was about condensed milk. I cannot remember what prompted their memory of this. The three of them insisted condensed milk was known as ‘sticky licky’ because it was used as a glue or instead of tape to stick things in books or to bulkheads or anywhere paper or photographs needed sticking.
I am indebted to Billy Boyle correspondence after the interview for many additional details in this piece.
