The Steam Trawler
The Firth of Forth became a magnet for early steam powered vessels as shelter from the wind was provided on three sides allowing the vessels to work almost all year round and fishing here was good. There was constant trouble between the different fishing communities with people in the highest positions becoming involved. Some laws were passed to protect the inshore fisherman. This was to allow the line fisherman to continue and kept the trawlers clear of what was thought to be the Herring Spawning areas, the Oyster Beds of the Firth of Forth also needed to be protected. This did not prevent clashes between the different kinds of fishermen; many of these clashes were violent. So from almost the very beginning trawling in the Firth of Forth and three miles to the East of the May Island was prohibited. It was to the fishing grounds east of there that the steam trawlers went to catch fish. These vessels came from far and wide to fish.
Early steam trawler with sails
These vessels were approx 40 to 100 tons and built to withstand the ferocious weather they would encounter in the North Sea or German Ocean as some would call it. These vessels were built of wood at first but iron vessels soon followed. The earliest purpose built fishing vessels were designed and made by an Orcadian, David Allan. In Leith Edinburgh during March 1875, he converted a drifter to steam power. In 1877 it is said that he built the first screw propelled steam trawler in the world. This vessel was “Pioneer” registered at Leith LH 854. She was of wooden construction with two masts and carried a gaff rigged main and mizzen using booms, and a single foresail. These trawlers would leave the harbour at around midnight on Sunday and spend the next five or six days on the fishing grounds, were the trawl would be shot over the side and fishing commenced. After an allotted time the trawl would be hauled and the Cod End emptied and retied and once more sent to the bottom and trawling once again commences. It is to the fish now that all but the Skippers attention is taken. Boxes are brought up on deck and the fish washed and sorted into boxes according to size and species, there was no ice then and fish were sold round and not gutted. This routine would continue relentlessly until it was time to head for home. Sleep would be scarce and in short sharp bursts for these crews. Catching fish was the priority.
Over this
period the method of vessel ownership also changes from owner/skippers to groups
of owners forming companies and fleets of vessels. The price of building one of
these vessel is approx £3000 nearly
four times the price of a sailing vessel. At this time second-hand trawlers
could command higher prices than new ones, because they were available for use
immediately. These ships were becoming increasingly larger as they ventured
further a field in search of fish. A result of this modernisation was the
greater efficiency and drove the need to go further afield and to retain high
catches by 1891 trawlers from Britain were already fishing at Iceland.
In Granton Thomas
L. Devlin began to build a fleet
of trawlers which went on to be one of the largest privately owned fleets in
Britain.
The Demise of the Steam Trawler
This
demise was gradual if not inevitable. The wheelhouse equipment on a steam
trawler was very basic; consisting mainly of the steering wheel, engine
telegraph control, a compass, an echo sounder and a two way radio. The skippers
on these vessels were experienced Old Sea Dogs who watched the skies with a
weather eye, who had catching fish down to a fine art and 50% luck. The ships
position was found using a lead line, and a sextant, some skippers could tell
where they were by what the lead indicated was on the sea bed. The large post
war catches were declining, the cost of
coal ever increasing. These trawlers most of which had been built before or
during the First World War were now beginning to show their age. The Board of
Trade had over the post war years introduced new tough sea worthiness and safety
checks. The cost of attaining these standards was on some vessels prohibitive.
The discarded vessels were mainly sold for scrap mostly to
the British Iron & Steel Corporation (BISCO founded
06.1940-09.1962).
The vessels were then allocated to breakers yards across the country. Malcolm
Brechin had a yard in Granton Harbour; there were also yards at Inverkeithing,
Bo’ness, Grangemouth, St David’s and Charlestown all on the Firth of Forth.
The price paid for each vessel would be based on its tonnage and condition.
Prices would range from a few hundred pounds to five or six thousand pounds this
also being reliant on the fluctuating steel market.