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The Scottish Fishing industry before 1914

Herring was a delicacy on the Continent and was caught relatively easily off the Coast of Scotland., By 1913, Scotland had the largest fishing fleet in Europe with over 10,000 boats involved in the industry.

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The Scottish Fishing industry before 1914

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  1. Herring was a delicacy on the Continent and was caught relatively easily off the Coast of Scotland., By 1913, Scotland had the largest fishing fleet in Europe with over 10,000 boats involved in the industry. At the peak of the Herring Boom in 1907, 2,500,000 barrels of fish (250,000 tons) were cured and mostly exported to Germany, Eastern Europe and Russia. The boats followed the shoals of herring around the coast of Britain and along with them there followed an army of curers, merchants, general hands - and the herring lasses. Throughout the boom, the Scots fisher lasses were an integral part of the fisheries landscape at any port where herring was landed. The girls came from fishing villages all around the Coast of Scotland. They began gutting and packing the silver darlings at the age of 15, and travelled throughout the season from Stornoway to Lerwick, to Peterhead, and as far south as Yarmouth. The Scottish Fishing industry before 1914

  2. Anstruther harbour, east Neuk of Fife. Full of herring trawlers.

  3. Sorting the catch ready for gutting

  4. Gutting herring – a job for the lasses.

  5. Plenty of work packing salted herring to be sold to Russia, Poland and Germany

  6. Happy days!

  7. Before the war. Shetland herring fleet Herring boats turned into sheds after the war

  8. During the Great War • Once the war started, all east coast ports were closed, so the fishing industry here was effectively shut down. • “In September 1914 Scotland’s east-coast ports were commandeered by the Admiralty, who also took control of all shipping, including the fishing fleet…” T. Royle • This meant the loss of herring markets in Russia and North Germany. • Fishing continued on the west coast but only in inshore waters. • In 1914, 32,600 men worked in the Scottish fishing industry. By 1917 there were 22,000. • In the same years, white fish catches fell from 1.5 million tons to half a million • The loss of export markets for Scottish fish caused by the war was a disaster for the industry which struggled to recover after the war.

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