Scottish east coast fishery
The Scottish east coast fishery has been in existence for more than a thousand years, spanning the Viking Age right up to the present day.
They lay overnight with the drift nets set to catch the herring and were hauled by hand in the morning.
The market received a setback in the 1830s following the ending of slavery on British-owned plantations and, from 1845 to 1851 when the Great Irish Famine forced a mass emigration from Ireland.
Steam-powered fishing boats appeared towards the end of the 19th century and it was steam drifters that would take the volume of the catch to new heights.
The powered winches allowed longer nets to be deployed and their speed enabled the boats to get to market quickly and to return to sea.
Other European countries started to compete strongly with the British fleets and for twenty years the industry went into a steep decline.
After the Second World War, the Scottish east coast fleet, with government assistance, was totally regenerated becoming mainly a whitefish industry.
Although a quota is placed on the total herring catch and with no limit on mackerel, this sector is now the healthiest in the Scottish fleet.
Trading vessels were wide, to allow large cargo storage, while raiding boats were long and narrow and very fast.
Early Scottish boat builders copied the Scandinavian designs with their clinker planking and characteristic sharp stems and sterns.
It had the vertical stem of the Fifie and the steeply raked stern of the Skaffie, and he called this boat Nonesuch, registration number INS 2118.
The shape of the Zulus gave the boats a long deck but a shorter keel, which greatly improved their manoeuvrability.
As the 20th century approached, steam capstans were introduced, and this made the hauling of the sails and nets much easier for the crews.
These boats had a crew of twelve made up of a skipper, driver, fireman (to look after the boiler) and nine deck hands.
This vessel was Pioneer LH854.She was of wooden construction with two masts and carried a gaff rigged main and mizen using booms, and a single foresail.
In 1878 he completed three steam-powered trawlers: Forward for Methven of Leith and Onward for Sharp and Murray of Cellardyke.
In an interview with the Scotsman Mr. Allan stated that his motivation for auxiliary power was to increase the safety of fishermen.
The Lammas Drive of 1878 states" It was reported that D. Allan of Granton had built two steam drifters the Forward and the Onward.
It reads "The death was announced in South Shields of Mr David Allan, the founder of the steam fishing industry.
The steam boats also gained the highest prices for their fish, as they could return quickly to harbour with their fresh catch.
At first, they were mainly fitted to smaller boats of between 18 and 30 feet (5.5 and 9.1 m) in length, and they provided auxiliary power to assist the sails.
In 1921, some Lossiemouth skippers noticed that the Danish seine net boats were landing huge quantities of plaice and other white fish at the English east coast ports.
His boat, the Marigold, did very well and over a relatively short period the entire Lossiemouth fleet (the first in Scotland) converted to the seine net.
Because of this, otterboards are not required to hold the mouth of the net open, as the boats maintain at their maximum a distance apart of around 0.25 nautical miles (0.46 km).
Scottish seining, sometimes called fly dragging, has the net attached to two long ropes usually made of leaded polypropylene and around 3 km in length.
The net is deployed in a triangular fashion with the first rope attached to a marker buoy, the dhan, to which the boat returns to complete the set.
Like the trawl, floats and weighted footrope keep the mouth of the net open and in contact with the seabed.
Again otter boards allow the net mouths to spread apart horizontally while floats and ground ropes provide the vertical forces.
Pelagic gears are designed to catch species such as herring, mackerel, scad, blue whiting and sprats.
However pelagic fishing from boats from the Scottish east coast ports normally catch herring and an amount of blue whiting from the northern North Sea.
