Cockenzie and Port Seton
Sea fishing out of Port Seton reached its peak in the '70s. There were as many as 240 men employed locally on the 50 boats operating out of the harbour. The biggest boats - between 50'-70' in size - carried crews of six to seven men with the smaller boats carrying two to three men. The boats fished all over the North Sea, with bigger boats going out for a week at a time for catches of white fish. Smaller boats took on prawns as well as fish. Catches were landed at Eyemouth in winter and North Shields in summer. The Port Seton boats would radio the size of their catch to Tommy Johnston, who would then place the expensive link call into the coastal station where the catches were to be landed, to ensure sufficient lorries were waiting to take the fish to market. In one week's fishing in 1979, one boat, the Girl Janice, landed 400 boxes of cod out of the Forth, grossing £5,000.
The money would be divided as such - assuming a boat crewed by four men grossed £1000 for a week's work, £200 would go aside to cover fuel, repairs etc, and the £800 left would be split £400 to the owner (who would pay the skipper an extra £100 from this money) and £400 to the skipper and crew to be shared equally. This is still the method used - and no catch means no pay.
In what has become a legend in fishing folklore, a Port Seton boat, in 1975, was found guilty of salmon poaching off the Carr Light Ship near Montrose. The skipper was fined £2500 for destroying evidence and £50 for abduction of the officials sent to apprehend them! The fine was borne with great dignity, at a time when boats could make £5000 from a good week at poaching!
In 1977-8 a divorce between a Peterhead fisherman and his wife caused repercussions for fishermen all over Scotland, when as part of her settlement she demanded a share of the 'Stoker'. The Stoker was the name given to monies received for the black market sale to fish and chip shops of codlings - white fish just the right size for frying. This started an investigation by the Inland Revenue and resulted in tax bills between £40K-£200K for many fishermen, including several Port Seton locals.
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© 2004 Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian Society