Return to Item List
PERSONAL/DOMESTIC: RELATIONSHIPS: Parenting
WORK: SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: Wages, Work Hours, Work Patterns, Work
Relations, Employment, Unemployment,
Traditions
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES: Food, processing and packaging
LEISURE: HOBBIES, CRAFTS, PASTIMES: Dances
S. ANGUS
Listen to 1st track of interview
This is Fred Kennington, and I’m sitting in Albury House in Berwick and this is October, 1998 and I’m in a room with . . .
Miss Angus.
. . . with Miss Sena Angus. Now, I’ve just had a little word with her just now and she comes from Eyemouth and she was in the fishing business all her life and she tells me she’s, well she’s well on, she’s eighty nine. Now, I’m going, we’re going to talk about Eyemouth and the fishing. Now you, you tell me you left school at fourteen at Eyemouth.
Aye, that’s right.
Listen to 2nd track of interview
So what did you do after that? What’s your first job?
MY FIRST JOB
Well, I went to, the first place I went to was Yarmouth.
When you started at fourteen, you did . . .
That was in Burgon’s.
It started in Burgons.
. . . . .in Eyemouth.
In fact, it started in (. . . . . . .). Well, what was your first job?
My first job was kippering the herring.
You cut the herring.
Aye, I split them for to make kippers.
So it was just a case of splitting them. There was no . . .
Splitting them and then you had to clean them and they had to be washed and after they were washed, they were put into what we called, drying. For to pickle, pickle.
Aye, uhu.
And put into the brine, taken out and we’d prick them on and then they went into the smokehouse . .
Mmm huh.
. . and after they went in we handed up the herring to the man that was putting them along in the kiln.
Mmm huh.
For to be smoked.
Aye, how long, how many, I mean you would be working a whole day doing that, were you?
Oh yes.
Listen to 3rd track of interview
Well how many herring did you do in a day?
A LONG DAY
We went out, we went out in the morning and started at . . eight o’clock and we went right on until six.
Mmm huh.
And then we finished at six o’clock till the next morning, we got up and went out to be out for six o’clock to pack the kippers.
Mmm huh.
But for the amount of herring mind, I don’t know how many there were we did in a day.
A lot?
A good lot, aye. Course, it all went by the cran.
Listen to 4th track of interview
Did you get paid by the number of herring crans.
PAID BY THE HOUR
The hour. Paid by hour.
Oh you got paid by the hour.
Aye.
Mmm huh. So, that was your job at Burgons. How long did you work with him?
Well, I was . . now wait a minute now, I left at fourteen and I think I started to travel when I was . . nineteen . .
Mmm huh.
. . . and I went to, as I say I went to Yarmouth.
How long did you go at a time when you were at Ya. . .
Oh you went for a, a good few weeks.
Listen to 5th track of interview
The herring, as far as I’m aware, you went, you sort of started at, started at North West Scotland and came right round the coast.
FOLLOWING THE HERRING ROUND THE COAST
Well, we went right round. We went, I went to Yarmouth, and I went to Stornoway, and Oban and . . . St Ives and Mallaig. I was at Mallaig as well. And I went from there to Fraserburgh and from Fraserburgh to Peterhead . . . .
Mmm huh.
. . . . and that was for Woodger. John Woodger & Son.
John Woodger, well, Woodgers, well, did they come from Seahouses?
No, he came from Hull.
He was from Hull.
He came and I was in Hull as well. I’ve been at Hull as well.
Were you in the Shetlands?
No. I’ve never been there. I’ve never been to Shetland.
Listen to 6th track of interview
Well, let’s just talk about, how, how, where did you stay when you went to these places?
LIVING ACCOMMODATION
We had to go into lodgings. When we were in Stornoway, we were in the huts.
Mmm huh.
Know the wooden huts?
Uhu.
And the same with Mallaig. We were in the wooden huts at Mallaig.
Mmm huh.
And then, when we went to Yarmouth, we went into lodgings.
Listen to 7th track of interview
Did, how did you travel? Did you go on the train?
GETTING TO THE VARIOUS PORTS
Train. By train.
Listen to 8th track of interview
Well, who, how did you take your, all your clothing, because you’d be away for months?
A KIST
Well you see, we had a box. We called it a kist.
Aye.
A kist we called it and we took that with all our clothes in and we took that both to Mallaig and Stornoway and the same with Yarmouth, in the lodgings in Yarmouth you see? And . . we’d be there maybe about seven, eight or nine weeks.
In one place?
Listen to 9th track of interview
MOVING ON
In Yarmouth . .
Mmm huh.
. . . and when the fishing was done there, we’d go to another place likes of say Hull.
Mmm huh.
And maybe from Hull to Fraserburgh, and Fraserburgh to Peterhead.
Mmm huh.
And . . then we’d come back home and then the next time, we were paid off you see, then.
Oh when the season, when the herring fishing was finished?
When the season was done we had to come home. . .
Listen to 10th track of interview
And you were just unemployed?
UNEMPLOYMENT
. . . and then were unemployed for a bit and . . .
did you get any dole?
Well, if . . we got the dole for a wee while . . .
Mmm huh.
. . . and then after that there were jobs come. Now there was a job come for night work in Carlisle and I was eight weeks in Carlisle.
You just had to take what you could get?
And we just had to, you know, but it was all night work in Carlisle you see.
What was it, what sort of, what . . . .
And they were bringing the herring from Ayr.
Oh I see. It was still fishing.
Listen to 11st track of interview
GUTTING AND PACKING
It’s still the herring, and it was still kippering you see. But, when I was in Lowestoft it was gutting but I was a packer. I used to do the packing the herring in the barrel.
Now then let’s, let’s, you were talking about gutting and you were talking about packing. So you did some gutting?
Well, I wasn’t a gutter. I was a packer.
You were never a gutter?
No. I, I packed the herring for the two gutters you see.
Well how did, how did you become a packer as opposed to a gutter?
Well, the other two were two gutters, you see and they asked me if I would go as a packer.
Did you get more money for that?
Like a crew. They called it a crew.
Uhu.
A crew.
Well you would have, if there was two gutters working furiously, you would have to work . . . .
Listen to 12nd track of interview
PIECEWORK
Well it was piecework you see.
Ah, piecework there.
That, you’re working for yourself there you see?
Aye.
What they called piecework.
So, in fact there’s a, there’s a crew working together. If you don’t pack them fast enough, the gutters . . . .
Well they, they came to help you when they were finished. We did, when the herring was finished. The gutting you see. They came and helped you to pack the rest of the herring into the barrels.
Listen to 13rd track of interview
Right. Now, how did you pack the herring?
HOW THE HERRING WERE PACKED
Oh well, they went up on their backs. One that way up and one this way up.
And did you pack them in brine or something?
No. You packed them and packed up. Salt all the way. Put the salt in each tier you were packing, till you got to the top and then the cooper, he put the lid on. Now, they were left for a wee while, in the barrel and then the, the cooper came with a can to put brine in.
Oh I see.
Listen to 14th track of interview
EXPORTING TO GERMANY
Before they went onto the German boat to go across to Germany.
So, all these, these herring generally went to Germany?
That’s right. All went across to Germany. There used to be a big boat came in as well you see.
No, that’s from Yarmouth and Lowestoft. You were talk, you were talking about packing these in crans.
That’s a cran of herring.
Listen to 15th track of interview
A cran of herring.
A CRAN OF HERRING
A cran of herring.
Is that a, is a cran something peculiar to Eyemouth?
Well it is that. They call that in Eyemouth a cran of herring you see.
Now what did they call it in Lo, what did they call it in Lowestoft?
Well, I think it would be the same.
A cran.
I don’t know mind.
Well, when you went round to St Ives, I mean you’re getting the far end of the country. What, how did you get on at St Ives?
Well, we got, we were splitting the herring there you see.
You were splitting the herring?
Yeh. It was making kippers there.
Uhu.
Aye.
The, the job was basically the same, was it?
Very same as what we were doing at, when I was at the home at Burgons.
There was no difference between how they kippered at Eyemouth and how they kippered at Yarmouth or . .
No. It was all the same.
Everything was the same.
It was all the one thing.
Listen to 16th track of interview
But, you did say to me earlier on when we were talking that they didn’t call them crans in St Ives.
A CRAN BECOMES A LAST
No. Last. They called them Lasts. That’s what they called them down there and it was Holmes(?) of Berwick that I worked for there, you see?
Oh I see.
Aye.
You worked for Woodgers when you were at Yarmouth.
Yarmouth and, and Fraserburgh and Peterhead.
Listen to 17th track of interview
Aye. So, he must have employed an awful lot of women?
MANY WOMEN TRAVELLED
Oh well . . you see, there was a lot of women travelled. A lot of fishing. And I used to go, the first year that I went away, I went with my sister. My oldest sister.
Mmm huh.
And she aye, she would travel the fishings as well. All the way round, for Woodgers just the same.
Well how many, how many of the girls from Eyemouth went?
Oh well, there was a good lot.
What do you mean, a couple of hundred or something like . . . .
Well, I would say maybe about a hundred.
About a hundred?
About a hundred. I would think so, aye.
Mmm huh. Well how, when, you started that when you went, you went there when you were nineteen so we’re talking about 1928.
Aye, round . . . .
And how long did you, how, I mean the, eventually the herring ran out. How long was it, how long, how many years did you work going around the country?
Aye, well, I couldn’t . . .
Up to the war? Were you still going before the war?
It was before the war.
I can remember, just remember them at the, some of the girls gutting herring on the Carr, on the Carr Rock at Berwick . .
Mmm huh.
Be about, that’d be about 19 . . .
At Spittal.
At Spittal?
At Spittal.
About 1938 and that must have been about the last of them.
Listen to 18th track of interview
HERRING FISHED OUT
Aye. I would say, course there’ll never be no herring for a long, long time.
Well of course, they were fished out . .
You know, they went away like that.
Because (. . . ) the thing with herring, they seem to be in shoals and then they just vanish.
Aye. That’s right, aye.
Well, I mean, they, they move, you, you got them at Mallaig and Ullapool and then they moved round the coast and you got them at Wick and Buckie and that . . .
That’s ri, aye, yes.
. . . and they came down. And eventually the time came when they just . . .
Went away. Cleared out there.
And there used to be, I mean they were a cheap meal when I was a kid.
Oh yes, yes.
They cost a fortune now.
Aye. And you see, when we were in Hull, it was Norwegian herring we were doing.
(. . . . . .)
When I was in Hull.
Uhu.
Splitting the herring there.
Listen to 19th track of interview
Now then just when, when you were working on with the herring, it always seemed to be when I’ve seen the pictures, that you had, like you had a un, a sort of uniform you wore.
OILSKIN APRONS
Well, it was the oilskin coat we called it, and an apron, a yellow apron.
Was that a brattie(?) apron?
The, what they called bratts(?) they called them long ago, you know, in the Eyemouth (. . . .).
Yeh. A sort of a, a sort of hessian, sacking (. . . . .)
Aye. Oil. Just oilskin.
Mmm huh.
And . . . it, it used to be a man made the oilskin coats in Eyemouth you know . . .
Oh, so you bought, you had to buy your own?
Oh you had to buy them. Oh yes. Aye, you had to buy your . . not the apron. You got the apron from the firm.
Listen to 20th track of interview
You got the apron, but you had to buy the oil . . .
WE BOUGHT OUR OWN BOOTS AND OILSKIN COAT
You had to buy your rubber boots and your . . oilskin coat to put on.
Listen to 21st track of interview
Now what about headgear. I mean, you were working outside in all weathers weren’t you?
OUR HEADGEAR
Oh, I know. Well . . . sometimes I used to have a hankie round, tied round here. . .
Mmm huh.
. . . but not always mind.
Listen to 22nd track of interview
But you must have got awful wet and cold?
THE COLDEST PLACE TO WORK
It did. . but it would . . the coldest fishing was when I was in Hull.
Was it?
Working in Hull, fishing.
How was that?
Working with ice. Pulling all the ice off.
Oh they were bringing. . . oh, they were bringing the, the herring from Norway in ice.
In, into Hull.
So, well, that comes down to your hands, because you know, get up and tie your fingers. Right now then . . .
Well, for kippering, your two thumbs and your forefingers. When you’re kippering but the gutters had all their fingers. Now, I didn’t have any when I was packing.
Listen to 23rd track of interview
What did you tie your fingers up with? Just cloths?
What they called cotton. You know that cotton . . . they used to buy it long ago. Cotton material it is.
Aye.
FINGERS WERE TIED UP
Well, that’s what they tied their fingers up with, bits of cotton . . . .
And you just had to, well you would have to wash those every now and then.
Oh yes, yeh.
Because you couldn’t, you couldn’t afford to . . . .
And then the only time you got them off when was getting your food. Know? You had to take them off. You couldn’t take your food with them on.
No, no.
No.
Listen to 24th track of interview
But you must have got, the, the gutters must have got an awful lot of cuts, didn’t they? (. . . ) hands cut.
NOT MANY CUTS
No. I wouldn’t say, with all their fingers being tied up you see. They had all their fingers tied up, the girls.
Mmm huh. But they didn’t get their hands cut?
At the kippering?
Mmm.
Well, they might have done. I don’t know but . . . as far as I know, I never heard of anybody getting cut fingers.
Well, I mean, they were, they were very deft with their fing, with the knives, you know? And they would . .
Oh, I know.
. . . I don’t, they must have cut fifty or sixty an hour.
The gutting knives were just little knives like that and they used to gut the herring that way, you see? The gill, at the gills we called it, the gills.
Aye. Well, of course, what, what the listener wouldn’t hear is, Miss Angus has just demonstrated and it, it surprises me how they didn’t get their faces and, their faces cut with the knives you know, the knives . . .
No. No, no. You see it was right down and they were bent and we called the farlins(?) the gutters were the, the farlins.
The farlins?
Listen to 25th track of interview
THE HERRING WERE HEAPED INTO FARLINS
It was a big wooden box and the herring was all heaped up in there. And they’re all salted, you see?
Well just a minute, let’s . . let’s be, how, what, the herring came in off the, off the quayside . . . .
Aye.
. . . and they were just put into, like a big trough.
Aye.
And that’s a farlin?
Aye. Put, farlins they called it.
But in the farlins. . . .
Aye.
Listen to 26th track of interview
. . . and they just picked them up.
GUTTED AND PUT INTO BASKETS
Picked them up and gut them.
And where. . .
Into baskets.
Into a basket?
And then you had all the, you had the large, medium and small.
Oh and that . . . .
(. . . . . . . . .) to the herring at the gutting. This was at the gutting.
Well if you got any undersized herring they would have to be . . .
Thrown out I think.
So you, the gutters had to know, the gutters had to estimate which . .
SORTING INTO SIZES
Oh aye, they had to go. And then you have a, you had a foreman telling you, the medium the large and the small. You see?
Mmm huh.
And it, they were all different baskets laid out.
Uhu.
For the herring to come in. Now, he’d bring a small basket to you. Then he’d bring a medium basket and then a large one.
Ah, you would get one of each because, with a small herring there would. . .
A selection.
. . . . be more, there would be more than enough to go in a barrel so you had to have some large ones to compensate in another barrel.
(. . . .) that and then you had to come right to the top and then the cooper put the lid on.
Listen to 27th track of interview
Well did the cooper, were the coopers the men from Lowestoft and Yarmouth or did they go with you from Eyemouth?
EYEMOUTH HAD ITS OWN COOPERS
No. I’m don’t think so. No, they, they had their own coopers in Eyemouth.
They had their own. So, the coopers stayed where they were.
The coopers, because they stayed where they are, and . . . the coopers used to make the barrels as well.
Oh aye.
To put the herring in you see?
Of course . . . .
The hoops, they were called the hoops you know.
Mmm huh.
And it was the, a, the wooden barrel then and then they had little wee half barrels as well.
Mmm huh.
Yes.
Now your family, your family (. . . . .) what did, sorry, you were, you were working for yourselves there. You were on piecework.
Piecework. But in the kipper, it was hour work.
Listen to 28th track of interview
Now how, you’ll not, can, you’ll not be able to remember how much you were paid. Can you?
FOUR PENCE AN HOUR
Well, sometimes it would be maybe, what would I say, when you first started the kippering. I think it was about eightpence an hour.
Eightpence an hour.
I think it was eightpence an hour.
That’s about 4p. by current standards.
Aye.
Listen to 29th track of interview
And you, you had to pay for your lodgings, did you?
COST OF LODGINGS
Oh when I was in Yarmouth, it was six shillings a week in Yarmouth.
So . . . you’re talking about ten hours work.
Oh it’s, well . . .
To pay for your digs.
In Yarmouth, in Yarmouth it was from six in the morning till six at night when we were in Yarmouth.
How many . . six, six days a week or seven? How many?
Oh not seven days.
Seven days a week?
S. . . up to the, you worked up till the Friday.
Ah, I see, uhu.
Aye.
Listen to 30th track of interview
So, you did get some time off?
DAYS OFF
Oh definitely. We got Saturday and Sunday off.
Aye, you had five days. Well, it’s still quite, it’s a long, I mean it’s still, it’s still a sixty hour week.
Oh aye, aye. Oh you had to work well (. . . .) till the herring was finished you see.
Mmm huh.
You’d to work right through.
It’s another world, isn’t it?
Oh definitely.
Listen to 31st track of interview
It’s in a world away. Did, did you like it though or did you just, were you just used to it?
I WAS USED TO THE LIFE
I liked, I got used to it you see after I left the school and, and went to the herring and I mean, I liked it. It was our job all the time (. . . .). Till there, there were no herring, well, and you were paid off, you see?
Mmm huh. It was just what you were brought up to.
Brought up to.
You were brought to expect it, were you?
That’s right, you see. Yes.
Was your, was your father. . . . .
Well you see my father was a fisherman.
Did he have his, what, did he go out on, on cobles or drifters or what? What was your . .
Listen to 32nd track of interview
TYPES OF BOATS
The small boats they went out on.
The cobles?
But a bigger boat, we used to go to Ireland when they had work, I think they called my father’s boat ‘The Big Mary’.
Mmm huh. Was that a steam drifter?
No. It was just an ordinary fishing boat.
Was it? I know what you mean, aye.
You know, went with the motor like. Not a sailing boat.
No, no. I remember the drifters in Eyemouth before the war. Used to see the drifters, the steam drifters with the sails on them.
There was one, one drifter went ashore on the beach. ‘The Boy Jacob’ they called it.
Oh I think I’ve seen a photo of that.
Do you remember that?
I’ve seen a photo of that.
Aye. I think they had a lot of photos in Berwick in, up in the street there, you know?
Yeh, that’s right. I’ve seen, I’ve seen that photo. The Boy Jacob, he was beached on the sands.
On the sands.
Yes, I’ve seen, I’ve. . .
I, I think it was the wave that had taken them or something.
And I think they, they . . .
Rough.
. . . I think they had to come off on a breeches-buoy.
I think so.
Did your father have any accidents when he was . . .
Not as far as I know.
Not as far as you know. I mean he’s . . .
But I know he went to Yarmouth and he went to Ireland.
Mmm huh.
I knew that.
Listen to 33rd track of interview
When, I mean these would be very small boats with a crew of what, three or four men?
A SMALL BOAT CREW
I think they had about six.
Six men?
Six men. As far as I know I think it was six men.
Listen to 34th track of interview
Well, I mean, with your mother, she, had she been to the fishing in her time, the same way as you?
MOTHER DIED WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
Well you see, I never saw my mother. My mother died when we were born.
Uhu.
And I never saw her. And then I was brought up by different people you see. Know. Strangers.
Mmm huh.
To, well, till I was about six. Till I got to, well about what, three or four and then I knew that it wasn’t my mother and father you see.
So, I mean, life, in fact, life was very difficult for you as a child.
Oh definitely. Because I, it wasn’t my mother and my father you see. I was brought up with this woman. She was, I would say she was like a midwife.
Mmm huh. Well of course, there was no social services or anything in those days.
Oh nothing.
I mean, your father is a fisherman, having to go to sea and he would be a, quite a young man.
Aye, that’s right. Oh, he was quite young then.
I mean, he’s landed with a young family and no . . .
That’s right, aye.
So he’s got to do the best he can with them.
Oh I know, aye.
Listen to 35th track of interview
So in fact, you had to, I mean you would have to learn to look after yourself.
FENDING FOR MYSELF
I did. Oh yes. Aye. Yes, after they, them that brought us up after they died, well I had to sort of fend for myself then, put it that way. Yes.
Well, how did you manage? I mean I know this is nothing to do with the fishing but it’s really a bit of social history this, because here you are, you’re in a fishing community in difficult circumstances and you’re aged about ten or eleven. Where were, what were you doing, how did you live then?
Well we just had to . . know, get on the best, to do away, you know.
You learn, you had to learn to cook and . .
And everything yes. Oh aye.
You see, what I was going to ask you was, it’s probably irrelevant, is that, the women in those days had to bait the lines and . . .
Oh aye. They were baiting lines as well.
Did you bait lines?
Well, aye, my father married again you see, and the woman he married well, and this was later on, and he went to the . . . he went to the white fish as we call it and they were baiting the lines then you see.
Mmm huh. Well the white fish, that’s cod and haddock and turbot and stuff like that.
Aye, that’s right.
Which was fairly, fairly inshore.
That’s right.
Wasn’t very far away. He would go out in the morning and come back the same day.
Day. That’s right, uhu.
So.
Aye.
Listen to 36th track of interview
It’s, it’s been quite a difficult time. Now, what about, what about your leisure when you were young? You were away at Yarmouth and Stornoway and these places.
HOW WE RELAXED
Make our own fun. We used to make our own fun in Stornoway and Mallaig and . .
Did you get to dances and that?
The, one, once I think, I was in Stornoway. I was with the Peterhead girls in Stornoway.
Mmm huh.
Listen to 37th track of interview
HELPING TO RAISE FUNDS
And . . we went once to this dance and I, I think it was for some kind of helping, you know, helping like, like how they do with the, maybe say the Red Cross or something like that, you know?
Mmm huh.
The funds were helping their funds then. The money was going to them.
Well mind, here you lot are, working your innards out, for very low pay and you’re make, you’re looking to make money for the Red Cross and that?
Well, we used to help with all these kind of things.
Did you?
Yeh.
You know, it’s amazing really that, that that’s, that spirit was there. Because you could, you were sufficiently hard up. . .
You see you were brought up, you were brought up, you know, to, to be kind and things like that to everybody.
Mmm huh.
. . . and we used to get on fine. We used to enjoy it. You know, make them, Stornoway and Mallaig, we would make our own fun. But still it was nice. We had a nice time.
Did you find, did you find you saw the girls from the other ports from time to time, you got to know them?
Oh got, well you got to know different girls you see that you were working with.
I mean you, you would go to Peterhead and you might see somebody from Stornoway, a group from Stornoway.
Aye.
And you would . . .
Well, they were. They were women from Stornoway in Peterhead and Fraserburgh as well because they used to work for Woodger you see.
Uhu.
Aye.
Listen to 38th track of interview
Well when, when you finished all the, when you finished on the herring, what did you do after that?
DONE WITH TRAVELLING
Well, when I came back from . . travelling the fishings, I just went into Burgons again and helped with white fish, prawns and lobsters.
Listen to 39th track of interview
Mmm huh. What were you doing with them?
GETTING THE PRAWNS AND LOBSTERS READY FOR EXPORT
Well, the prawns, you’d to take the head off of them, you know. Because they were going away. You know. Going foreign, I don’t know where. It could be France, I don’t know. And then . . the lobsters, well they used to go away to France and these places you see. We used to put the bands on the, on their claws as they called them. We used to put the rubber bands on their claws, on the claws.
Well, what, presu, it might be a silly question for me to ask but with lobsters, you were putting bands on the claws. Was that just to hold them together or . . .
Aye, yes . .
Were they alive?
Oh the, they had to be alive.
Thought so. I thought . . .
And they had to be alive when they landed in France. We packed them in cardboard boxes, they went by plane. Packed them in cardboard boxes, put saw, sawdust was in the bottom, then you put that straw. You know that straw stuff.
Mmm huh.
Piece of paper and ice on the top of the paper. Sealed them down, the cardboard boxes, sealed them down and then they went on the plane. Oh we’d to go out at two to three o’clock in the morning to pack them.
Course you would have . . .
That was in Burgons like.
You would, you would have to do them as soon as they landed?
Oh definitely.
So it, it . . .
You see they were in, they were in these pans. You know, the big pans . .
Mmm huh.
And . . they were taken away, weighed, put in and put away into the boxes and away out to France.
Listen to 40th track of interview
Well you must have got your, you must have got your fingers nipped a little . . .
WE HAD TO MIND OUR FINGERS
Well sometimes, some of them did. I didn’t mind. I never, I was lucky one I know . . .
It’s more, more technique than good luck really. It’s how you hold them I suppose.
Oh no. It’s just watching what you’re doing. Know, keeping your eyes and if there wasn’t a band on, you put the band on and after you put the band on and you got the baskets, after they were weighed, you packed them into the boxes and I’ve seen us out at two and three o’clock in the morning, at Eyemouth, doing it in Eyemouth . .
Mmm huh.
. . to go to France in the plane.
Listen to 41st track of interview
Mmm huh. It’s amazing really. Did, is th, I mean obviously, you would carry on working until retiring age, did you?
RETIRED AT SIXTY FIVE
Oh well, I retired when I was sixty-six.
So you would do, you were still working with prawns and lobsters . .
And lobsters and f. . white fish as well.
White fish.
Aye. That was in Burgon.
What did you do . . . .
. . . after I finished the travelling.
Listen to 42nd track of interview
Aye. What did you do with the white fish?
WHAT WE DID WITH THE WHITE FISH
Well you just gutted them. Gut the fish . . .
You gutted them.
. . . and that was all you did. And they put them away, the men, there were men there to take, wash them and take them away and put them into boxes and put ice on them. We put them into the boxes just like, you know, landing like that and then put the shovel full of ice and then the other, the men, the coopers that were there, and other workmen that were there, they took them away and put the lid on and they were put away to . . wherever they were going.
Now when you were doing with the white fish like that, did you have, still have to tie your fingers up?
No. No, not with the white fish.
Not with the white fish?
No. No.
Did you wear gloves?
Pardon?
Listen to 43rd track of interview
Did you wear gloves?
WE WORE RUBBER GLOVES
We had gloves. Aye, rubber gloves.
Aye, so that wasn’t so bad but coming back, this business at Hull you were mentioning about getting the Norwegian herring in on ice.
Mmm huh.
Did that not leave you with problems with your hands for your health?
Well no, you see we, we had the gloves on then as well.
You had gloves, so you were . . .
It was just pulling, you had to pull the ice off you see.
Mmm huh.
To the ground and then . . you, you got the herring, you got your herring split and as I say, they got washed and then into the brine and then . . we pricked them on, put them up the lubs(?) we called them, the lums . .
The lums, the chimneys?
The lums, aye.
Aye, I know what you mean.
Later on, Burgons and them got a, a big, you know these new fashioned, and they had the rails that they pushed them in . . .
Aye, I know . . .
. . . like a big . . what is they call them now, they have a name for them. Rails! Like put on the rails and instead of handing them up to the man . .
yes, I’ve seen, I’ve seen this, I’ve seen, done . .
Did you see that somewhere?
I’ve seen, I’ve seen it in Denmark. I saw it in Denmark.
Oh yes.
With these rails with the herring hanging, so that was, that was easier to do.
Aye, aye.
Listen to 44th track of interview
But I still, you know, when you were working, even if you had gloves on, when you were working with ice, your hands must have got sore.
THE PROBLEMS OF WORKING IN SUCH COLD CONDITIONS
Oh they were cold! They were cold.
Is it, is that not like, has that not given you any problems with arthritis or anything?
Well, it could, could happen to some peop, some people’s had rheumatics you know.
Must have had. Did, what, just on general health, were you o, did you have any health problems? I mean working outside you might be thinking . . .
No, no. No I can’t say. I had, I must touch wood, I’m, I’ve been very lucky.
So you, I mean, it didn’t do you any harm doing this?
Pardon?
You didn’t, you didn’t take any harm from doing . . . .
No, no. Well, you were used to being out in the fresh air as well you see. Aye.
Well, I’m just at the end of the tape now so I think this is time for me to call a halt to this. Thank you very much.
Oh, it’s no bother.
Unified Solutions.