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Copyright 2006
Last modified:
September 07, 2006 |
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the
Move
from Sail to Steam trawlers |
Fish and
Chips are an integral part of British life and many would identify them as the
national dish yet few people consider the risks and human endurance required to
catch the fish and the human cost in lives over the years to provide such a
nourishing and universally popular meal. What many people are also not aware of
is that North Shields led the way in pioneering the application of steam to
fishing.
The fishing
industry at North Shields came of age with the advent of steam, grew, prospered,
and died all within a time period of less than a century – one hundred years The
large steam trawling fleets have sailed into history and are in danger of being
forgotten.
Historian
Ron Wright
tells us that during the 1860s the fishing fleet
of North Shields comprised of sailing smacks and luggers. Steam powered
paddle tugs had made their mark by this time and were frequently employed to
give the sailing smacks and luggers a pull out of harbour when the wind
conditions made it impossible for them to sail out.
These steam tugs, all of which were
at this time paddle driven, were powerful beasts and it was not unknown for
them to cross the North Sea to ports such as Amsterdam and tow large sailing
ships back to the River Tyne when the winds prevented them from making the
passage eastwards.
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North Shields Fish Quay before steam,
note the Hi Light Building
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The
business of steam towage on the River Tyne was fickle and the arrival of sailing
ships unpredictable. The owners of the steam paddle tugs were constantly
searching for work in the North Sea, but many of the tugs were laid up with
nothing to do.
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The Paddle Tug
Stag, one of the first tugs converted to a trawler.
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In 1873 there were 145 steam tugs
alone registered on the River Tyne so it can be appreciated, busy though the
river was at this time, that competition was fierce and the returns small.
In November 1877 a sailing smack of
50 tons gross called the Zenith and registered as SN 944
became becalmed off the mouth of the River Tyne having shot her trawl. The
skipper James Kelly, reputedly a native of Hull, requested the tug
Messenger, captained by William Purdy, to tow him into harbour. The
trawl was left down.
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It is
reported that the Zenith landed a good catch of fish in excess of
that which was anticipated. It was this experience that prompted Purdy to wonder
at the logic of towing a trawl using steam for power. No doubt prompted by the
lean times Purdy fitted out the
Messenger with second hand trawl nets and gear much to the derision of
the local smacks men and lugger men. The trawling equipment made up of gear
sourced from Grimsby, North Shields and Sunderland cost a total of £19.10
shillings plus the installation of a small derrick.
On 2nd
November 1877 Purdy together with two crew members Thomas Tomlinson and a man
called Fryall left the North Shields Fish Quay on his maiden fishing trip to
cries of ridicule about him wasting his money and that his venture was bound to
fail. Jeers and catcalls abounded together with the throwing of rotten fruit as
they sailed away from the quay.
Within two
voyages the prophets of failure were silenced. His first voyage netted a catch
worth £7 10 shillings plus an additional £5 for towage of a sailing ship into
the River Tyne and upon his return from his second voyage Purdy had made a
modest profit but he had proved his point. Purdy quickly capitalised on his
achievement by declaring on his billheads
“William
Purdy of North Shields. Pioneer of Steam Trawling 1877”
The example of North Shields was quickly followed by
other ports up and down the North East coast and Scotland and within a year
50 paddle tug masters had followed Purdy’s example. Steam in the fishing
industry had come of age and had proved that it could catch fish.
The face of the fishing industry was changed. The
rush to put paddle tugs into service as trawlers was not without its
problems. These old wooden vessels were not fit for the daily grind of
towing a heavy beam trawl along the seabed. The attrition rate was high. In
the first six months of 1880 eight tugs converted for trawling were lost.
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A period picture depicting how it all
started, showing Sail & Steam.
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Now larger
steam paddlers built of wood and iron were specially constructed for trawling
but this form of propulsion only lasted a short period. Paddlers, whilst at home
on the inshore grounds were unsuitable for the turbulent seas around the Dogger
Bank and beyond. Thoughts turned to the propeller as a more efficient means of
propulsion. However Scarborough remained faithful to the steam paddlers until
1904 when the last of the paddlers SH 1237 Hartland, formerly
registered as SN 1516 ceased fishing.
The first
steam screw trawler appeared at North Shields in 1881 as SN 1168 Bonito
but she had left the North Shields registry by 1887. Throughout the fishing
industry the screw steam trawler proliferated especially on the North Eastern
ports where coal was in abundance and the coalfields were only a short distance
away. Cheap coal in abundance was reflected in cheap fish in abundance. The
railway lines, which carried the coal to the fish docks, transported the fish to
the inland industrial towns.
Noel Coward
could well have coined the phrase "they caught
the cod that fed the miners that dug the coal that powered the ships that caught
the cod that........"
The
application of steam powered engines to propel fishing vessels came surprisingly
late in the 1800s and not without its fair share of sceptics. Whilst the British
Isles were covered with a network of steam railways during the reign of Queen
Victoria this new form of motive power was much slower in reaching the fishing
fleets.
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Steam Trawlers at North Shields Fish Quay ca 1910, note Low
Light Building
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Yet North
Shields was at the forefront of this change and the man who is credited with the
introduction and application of steam to trawl fishing is William Purdy, a
native of the town.
Steam was slower in coming to the smaller drifters but was no
less inevitable. The first registered steam drifter is believed to have been the
SN 1492 Pioneer.
The explosion in the birth of the steam screw trawler brought
further benefits to North Shields and its surrounding area ‑ that of building
the vessels. The shipyards on the River Tyne turned them out at an amazing rate.
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It was not unknown for a steam trawler to be built from keel
to maiden voyage in less than forty days. Small yards, now long defunct, such as
the Union Cooperative Shipbuilding Society at Cowpen Square, Blyth turned out
nine ninety-ton trawler/drifters in a three-year period.
SN 118 Chris,
the only known surviving North Shields registered steam trawler, which was in
private ownership in Germany in 2000. Built in 1910 she was owned for a long
time by Richard Irvin’s of North Shields.
By 1904 the port of North Shields was in its heyday with
registrations of vessels at a high of 143, 135 of which were steam driven. 60
years later total registrations had collapsed to only 22, only one of which was
a steam trawler.
The glorious
age of the steam drifter and trawler is over and the ships have all gone, most
of them to the breakers yard but many of them to the cold murky depths of the
sea. The men who sailed in them are now either approaching or are in the
twilight of their lives. We need to remember them, their contribution and the
place in history that North Shields deserves.
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