Where there any rules on the trawler? Harry Day 2

Were there any rules on the trawler?

No. You could even go to jail if you didn’t turn up on time, or disobeyed a local command of the skipper’s. You went to jail.

 

What was life like on the trawlers?

Of course, you was among a lot of friends most of the time. You had to get on. I can get on with anybody, I think. But the actual work was very hard. It was nice running off and coming back. But the fishing time in bad weather was very hard. The weather made it hard, and the conditions. And the skipper can make it either hard or soft. Some of them was pure pigs, to be honest. I could name a few.

 

Tell us about safety on the boats

Safety was pretty much zero, to be honest. It depends what you mean by safety. There wasn’t any, there wasn’t any. You had to be your own safety officer. You did what you thought was safe. But you still had tasks to do, what you had to do. There wasn’t no such thing as… nobody ever said to you “Don’t do that, it’s dangerous”. They just said “You’ve got to do it”.