3. Extralinguistic Aspects
3.1. The Development of
the Fishing Industry
We
know very little about the type of fishing that was carried out along Britain's
shores prior to the 15th century. Only Julius Caesar in De
Bello Gallico mentions the skin and wicker boats he found in Britain at the
time of the Roman invasion. Apart from this reference, there is little evidence
concerning the type of fishing craft used along the coasts of Britain until the
latter part of the Middle Ages. On the East Coast of Scotland, fishing and
farming presumably existed side by side for a very long time:
It
is likely that from a very remote time fishing was pursued from these shores
by coastal farmers. This pattern - fishing during the summer months and
farming as well - remained the same for thousands of years, and until modern
times most of the communities were crofting hamlets.
The
first encouragements for fishing came from the church which bought the fish in
order to distribute them to the poor. In the 15th century, Dutch,
Flemish and German vessels were fishing off the Scottish coast. This led James
III to further promote fishing in his country. Government legislation, however,
could not prevent the Dutch from gaining supremacy in North Sea fishing during
the next two centuries. But in spite of Dutch boats dominating the North Sea
waters, communities of fisherfolk were established along the entire Scottish
east coast by the middle of the 18th century. These fishing villages
were mainly limited to inshore fishing from small boats.
In
1718 the bounty system was introduced. This meant that every fisherman was
rewarded a bounty for his catch. Even for the construction of a fishing boat a
bounty was paid. This system was maintained for the next 112 years and fostered
the growth of the Scottish fisheries. Then, in the early 19th
century,
Scottish herring fishing was started on a properly organized basis. This
industry was soon to become the greatest fishery in Europe. Exports went as far
as Russia: "The principal market for pickled herring was initially Ireland
and the West Indies, where the fish was fed to the slaves, but after the
Napoleonic War enormous markets on the continent of Europe and Russia were
opened up."
The herring industry was no longer local. Tens of thousands of people now became
involved and followed the boats around the whole coast of Britain.
After
World War I the herring industry rapidly declined and became concentrated in
larger ports such as Peterhead or Fraserburgh. The introduction of steam
trawling in 1882 further promoted the growth of big fishing centres, but at the
same time it led to a decay in the surrounding villages.
Today,
there are about 20 ports from which the big fisheries operate. Trawling is their
principal fishing method. The
majority of the smaller villages along the coast concentrate on lobster and crab
fishing. Many fishermen who work on the big trawlers, however, still live in the
villages of their ancestors and travel to the big harbours where their boat is
based.
Despite
the fact that the Scottish fishing industry employs far less people than before
the first World War, Scottish fishermen landed more than 60% of the total UK
catch in 1983.
This has not changed much, and fishing is still a very important economic factor
which determines the life of so many communities along the east coast of
Scotland.
3.2. Types of Fishing
Boats on the East Coast of Scotland
The history of the type of fishing craft which was in use along the east
coast of Scotland prior to the middle of the last century is obscure. The boats
of the Shetlands and Orkneys are the only ones which can be traced back further
than the ones on the Scottish mainland. As these islands formed part of
Norwegian territory until the middle of the 15th century, it is
hardly surprising that their boat design resembled that of their Scandinavian
ancestor - the Norwegian yawl or yole.
Boats like the Fair Isle Skiffs or the
North Isles Yoles, which were built
until well into the 19th century, had many features that were a
reminder of the connections with the Vikings.
In fact, all the boats which were
later built on the east coast stem from that tradition: "Generally speaking,
[the type of boat found in Fair Isle] extended southwards with gradually
increasing variations and developments, all along the east coast."
There were two main types of fishing
boats that operated from the harbours of the Scottish east coast in the last
century: the Skaffie or Scaffie and the
Fifie. The Skaffie type was generally
used on the shores of the Moray Firth. It spread as far north as Wick and could
even be found on the Shetlands and Orkneys. The Skaffie certainly proved to be a
true Scottish boat which was designed to meet the particular conditions of its
range of use. Nevertheless, it was an "obvious development from the boats
of Norse origin."
The Fifie which originated on the
shores of the Firth of Forth was commonly employed in waters ranging from the
Scottish-English border up to Banff. It could also be found on the north side of
the Moray Firth, sometimes as far north as the Shetlands, although this was the
exception rather than the rule. Until the introduction of steam vessels, "the
Fifie was the most common type of Scottish fishing vessel."
The Baldie
constituted a smaller version of the Fifie. This type of boat was mainly used
for inshore fishing. It spread along the whole length of the east coast but was
especially frequent on the Firth of Forth. Further north on the Moray Firth, it
was referred to as a skiff.
The first Zulu
type boats appeared around 1880 on the Moray Firth. They were a mixture of the
Skaffies and the Fifies - the idea being the production of "a fishing
vessel which combined the best qualities of each class."
Soon after their introduction, they spread across the entire coast. They were
built up to 80 feet in length and were, compared with a mere 65 feet of the
largest Fifies, the largest fishing craft employed on the east coast of Scotland
in the last century. Smaller Zulus for inshore fishing existed as well. They
were generally referred to as Zulu skiffs.
Steam vessels were introduced in
1871, but they were very slowly adopted. At the turn of the century they were
used particularly for trawling. As they were bigger than the Fifies and even the
Zulus, a lot of space was required to accomodate them in the harbour. Ports that
fulfilled the necessary requirements soon evolved into large centres to
accomodate the new trawling method and attracted at the same time fishermen from
the surrounding villages.
Fishing vessels fitted with diesel
engines gradually replaced the sails of the boats after the First World War.
When motor power was first introduced, it was only used as an auxiliary to sail
power. However, motor fishing vessels finally took over "when the Danish
seine-net began to supersede lines from 1921 onwards."
Today, the old types of boats have
all gone. Modern boats are of similar design all along the coast, and typical
local and regional features have vanished. Nearly all the fishing boats today
are fiberglass
constructions. They are usually named according to the type of fishing they
perform, e.g. creel boats, trawlers,
etc.
Some
informants could nevertheless still remember the old types of boats when they
were asked about them.
The answers show a distribution of the yawl
and the Fifie all along the coast,
which corresponds to what was stated above. Coble
(the pronunciation was [kCbl])
was only given as an answer in Burnmouth (in addition to yawl).
It is a continuation of the coble type
boat found by Elmer along the north-east coast of England.
Nobby and yawl were mentioned in Gourdon. The informant (XVI) remarked that nobbies
were "bigger than yawls but
otherwise just the same". Nobbies
did not occur further south but were listed by Elmer on the north-west coast of
England.
According to Mather
the smallest type of boats was called baldie
in the East Neuk of Fife (cf.above). Baldie
was also mentioned by informant XII.
All
in all, we find a fairly uniform pattern concerning the old types of boats in
the area examined.
Yawls (the small type of boats)
were employed all along the coast from Burnmouth to Gourdon. This was also the
home of the Fifies and Zulus
which worked from harbours big enough to accomodate them. In addition to
this uniformity of boat types, we find cobles
(typical boats in the north-east of England) in Burnmouth, marking this village
out as the transitional point from the "coble
area" to the "yawl area".
Baldies are boats which occur, for the
most part, in the East Neuk of Fife. The name baldie was probably not only another expression for yawl
(cf. Mather's view above) but reflected a genuine difference of boat design. The
occurence of the nobby type in Gourdon
is difficult to explain. Perhaps some time in the past, fishermen from the
north-west of England, where this type of boat was at home, brought it to
Gourdon.
3.3. Fishing Techniques
With the change in boats and technology, the methods of catching fish
have also changed. In the last century the principal method to catch white fish
(cod, haddock, etc.) was line fishing. This was further divided into great-line
fishing and small-line fishing.
The great-lines were mainly used in
deeper waters to catch larger fish such as cod or halibut. As their name implies,
they were longer and also heavier than the small-lines.
They could stretch for several miles with up to 5000 hooks attached to little
lines (snoods) running off the main
line. The chief difference in the small-line was its size. They were usually
much shorter than the long-lines. Small-lines were employed in inshore fishing,
and haddock was the principal catch. Today neither method continues. They have
all been superseded by trawling or seine-netting. The last village which gave up
small-line fishing on the Scottish east coast was Gourdon, where this method had
been employed until 1992.
Today, the chief industrial method
for catching white fish is trawling. It was introduced to Scotland in 1882. The
trawlers can only operate from harbours which are big enough to accomodate them.
This leads to concentrations of trawlers in a few selected harbours to which
fishermen from smaller communities have to commute in order to work on one of
the big trawlers.
A method which can also be used by
smaller boats is seine-netting. The seine-net is lighter than the trawl-net and can
also be worked by small crews. It is, however, not very common in Scotland.
The drift-net was used for
traditional herring fishing and was the principal fishing method on the east
coast of Scotland at the turn of the century.
It was also used for catching salmon. Due to EU restrictions in fishing, this
method is banned along the Scottish coast today but still allowed in England.
Crabs and lobsters are caught with
pots which are generally known as creels.
They consist of a wooden, plastic, or metal frame with three and sometimes four bows (in the latter case they are called parlour creels) and are covered with netting. They have usually two
entrances (one on each side) where the lobster or crab can get in and one door
to remove the catch. The bottom is weighted with a stone to sink the creel.
Inside the creel, a mackerel, herring, or other fish is tied to a bait
string to attract the lobster or crab. There are usually up to thirty creels
on a line (a string of pots) which are shot all at once. Creels are still worked
professionally from all harbours along the east coast of Scotland. Sometimes
part-time fishermen pursue this fishing method for additional income.
The two fishing methods which are of
interest for the present study are the traditional line fishing method and the
fishing with creels.
The information for this chapter is chiefly based on the works of Anson,
White and MacLean (Anson 1930, 1932, 1950; White 1950; MacLean 1985), as well
as on incidental material from the informants and personal observation in the
fishing communities.
