When ashore, many trawlermen and their families lived in rows of tightly knit terraces off Freeman Street in Grimsby and Hessle Road in Hull. By the early twentieth century their old sailing trawlers were replaced by much more efficient, steam trawlers. These were too expensive for most working fishermen to acquire and were usually constructed by specialist fishing vessel shipbuilders such as Cook, Welton and Gemmell for a small number of successful trawling companies whose owners not only understood the trade but had access to the requisite capital resources needed to finance their operations. In this new capitalist age, the owners did not go fishing themselves. Henceforward, the highest position a working distant water fishermen could usually aspire to was that of skipper. Successful skippers might make a lot of money but there was no fast track to the trawler’s bridge, all entering the trade started at the bottom as deckie learners – known sometimes as snackers – and worked their way up. The owners ensured there were more skippers than ships and a run of poor landings, or perceived misdemeanours, meant even a reputable skipper could be sacked and face a spell ashore.
By the Edwardian era the North Sea fishing grounds could not wholly satisfy British demand for white fish. The new steam trawlers began venturing to what became known as the distant water grounds, fishing off the Faroe Islands, Iceland, then later the Barents Sea, Bear Island, Greenland and the Norwegian coast.
Because the nets were hauled over the side, these steam trawlers were known as sidewinders. Hull sidewinder trawlers visiting these far-flung grounds typically made a three-week round trip, carrying ice to keep their catch fresh until they returned to St Andrew’s Dock. Such trips involved four- or five-day voyages to and from the grounds but whilst off the coasts of Iceland, vessels and crews were worked hard, fishing almost as intensely as weather conditions would permit. Eighteen-hour days of almost endless trawling, hauling, gutting and stowing were the order of the day. Distant water trawling trips continued throughout the year. In winter fishing took place during the long hours of northern darkness and on sidewinder trawlers the crews worked on pitching, rolling and wave washed decks, exposed to the full force of bitter arctic elements.
Once back in dock many – though not all – trawlermen crammed as much as they could into the three days ashore before their ship returned to sea. Sleep was not the first consideration. Those wildly splashing money around after a successful trip earned themselves the soubriquet of the ‘three-day millionaires’. Celebrations could be both raucous and generous with the dialogue in the trawlermen’s bars perhaps more Fred Trueman than Truman Capote.