So, here’s a question for you: what’s the connection between the introduction of decks into fishing boats, and the invention of that natty item of apparel, the blazer? Granted, they both happened during Victorian times, but that’s not the answer; I mean to say, so did rickets.
The story begins in tragedy, with the great storm that devastated the Moray Firth on the night of 18/19 August 1848. In Wick this became known as “Black Saturday”. The weather on the afternoon of 18 August was fine, so all down the coast some 800 boats put out to sea. It was the custom in the herring fishing to go out in the afternoon, find a promising spot usually about ten miles offshore, cast (or “shot”) your nets, sleep overnight on the boat and haul the nets in next morning hopefully bulging with herring. In the 1840s most of the boats would have been owned by the local merchants (or “fish curers”, which still makes me think of piscine faith healers) and the crews would be hired by one or other of these merchants. There were no auctions of herring at this time, and the boats would deliver the catch to the curing station rented by their merchant to be gutted and packed by the fisher lassies and coopers also in the merchant’s employ.
Forss Water at Crosskirk
Well, the boats were out on the night of Friday the 18th, when a storm arose out of nowhere around 3.00am. The crews frantically raced for the many little harbours all along the coast, but plenty didn’t make it. 124 boats were lost, and over a hundred fishermen lost their lives. Heartbreakingly, at Wick the sea had fallen enough to prevent laden boats from passing over the bar into the harbour, and there are accounts of families helplessly watching their loved ones perish in the storm (the passage was deepened after). The scale of the disaster was such that the government commissioned Captain John Washington of the Royal Navy to write a report and make recommendations. One innovation was to display barometers in harbours to warn fishermen of any sudden drops in pressure; and another was to fit decks to fishing boats to make them more stable. (Interestingly the fishermen resisted the decks, on the grounds that it could increase the chances of their being swept overboard and reduced the space available for the catch.)
Speaking of fishermen, it’s always good to be reminded of the dangerous conditions these men were exposed to as they smile blandly out at us from the old photographs and we admire the patterns on their jumpers. My replica gansey worn by George Bremner is coming on apace (I know I promised to include technical details, but at this stage it’s just a question of rinse and repeat, same as last week, making the most of all the plain knitting before the pattern comes along and complicates things). If Fate is kind I might even start the pattern next week.
Helmsdale River looking out to sea
Now, what about the blazer, I hear you ask? The origin is disputed, as so many historical facts tend to be, but this explanation seems plausible. The story goes that back in 1837 our Captain Washington hosted a visit to his ship by the newly-incoronatified Queen Victoria, and decided to fit out his crew in a spanking new uniform for the occasion. This was a double-breasted, navy blue jacket with shining brass buttons. The name of his ship? I kid you not, it was HMS Blazer…
Did they at least add things to grab hold of when they added decks? I once got to ride on one of those flat-board-with-a-sail things in the 1960s, I think it was called a “sunfish”, and the only thing to grab was a metal loop like an old fashioned screen door handle or drawer pull.
Hi Tamar, yes, they became closer to what we think of a fishing boat as being, generally speaking bigger and with a deeper draft, and the deck a few feet lower than the top of the sides.
I sometimes imagine what it would have been like in those early days, sailing back to port sitting or standing among thousands of recently deceased herring!