Page 88 - Bulletin 18 2014

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each with his warm clothing, oilskins, and tackle-box, stream towards the wharf. A solemn
look is on their faces – a look of despondency, yet determination – for things do not go well
with them at that time of the year. And so the boats are manned at nightfall and drifted into
position. Some twenty craft lie in the middle of the harbour, others close to the shore, and a
few further towards the entrance. Each boat carries an improvised home-made tin lantern
with candle, and the whole scene resembles a strange and silent carnival. Silence in the boats
is imperative, for the fish are shy and become disturbed by noises. It is remarkable, too, that
the big catches are made after midnight when the trains have ceased running and all is still.
On some nights the phosphorous on the water turns the place into a veritable lake of blue and
violet fire, and passing seals that follow the shoals into the harbour’s shallows make a fiery
whirlpool with each successive dive.

In the dead of the dark night more than a hundred men are afloat, barely a stone’s throw from
the shore: and the uncanny silence is a forerunner of what is to follow. What was that? A
splash and then a rattling sound! Hushed conversations are passed on from boat to boat
warning all the men that the advance fish of the shoal are there and coming slowly into the
harbour. The men are roused from slumber and their lines are dropped overboard. You can
now hear the splash of fish being taken from the water, the spluttering and wriggling sounds
on the hollow decks gradually growing, as tens and then scores are caught, …… The night’s
stilly calm is disturbed for many minutes, relapsing to a deep silence only to be broken again
when the next shoal arrives and a heavy toll is taken. Some nights bring boisterous winds and
the rain falls in sheets, yet the men persevere.

Nightly catches made from boats moored within the harbour vary; but when conditions are
favourable a moderate estimate shows eight men in one boat to have caught more than a
thousand fish that are invariably sold to dealers at about fourpence or fivepence a bunch.

Storms

Inevitably, the new structure and basin were tested by the gale force south-east storms. These

produced the “easterly seas” that the fishermen referred to and, in spite of the breakwater, the
waves curved round (a process known as wave diffraction) and swept into the basin causing

boats to drag or break their moorings and wash up on the beach. (Fig. 2.43.) There were some
particularly violent ones like those in 1927 and 1929 which snapped off lengths of the

breakwater parapet and sent many boats onto the beach. (Figs. 2.44 - 2.46.) In 1931 a
mooring chain was provided running parallel to the breakwater and 60 ft. from it to which 15

of the heavier boats could be moored farther back during storms.