The theme image for Sepia Saturday 286 manages to combine fish with the 4th July. The fish in question is a Spot Snapper and the image is from the collection of the Smithsonian Museum, the United States National Museum. Sadly, I will not be able to make it to the USA this year, so I will have to limit myself to fish and snappers.
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| SC01W.1 Fishing Boats, Grimsby (Alan Burnett. c.1988) |
We start out with a photograph of a Whitby fishing boat in Grimsby Fish Docks, a photograph I must have taken 25 years ago. From the look of her, I suspect the Trudella was laid-up when I took the photograph although she had been at sea a couple of years earlier when records suggest she was given aid by the Humber lifeboat. The photograph dates from a time when the East Coast fishing fleet was contracting and the fish docks at Grimsby were looking more like a rusty graveyard than a fishy nerve-centre.
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| SF01.1 Miriam Fieldhouse and Boat, East Lynn (Frank Fieldhouse, July 1948) |
My second photograph was taken forty years earlier and eighty or so miles further south. The woman is none other than Auntie Miriam (that great figure-head of Sepia Saturday) and the boat is the fishing vessel Sarawara. Records suggest that the Sarawara might have been part of that fleet of tiny boats that was used to evacuate allied troops from the Dunkirk beaches in 1940.
As for the snapper - Auntie Miriam had a reputation for a stinging tongue. Back in the 1960s she had a little terraced house close to the bus stop my brother and I would use. Whenever we were passing we were expected to call in and see her, an activity both of us were keen to avoid as much as possible. The preferred tactic was to crouch down below the level of the wall and make a run for it, but if caught we would be halted in our tracks by a booming voice that echoed through the village "Oy bugger-lugs, where dos thee think tha's going?" You can't buy memories like that.
If you want to fish for some more old images in response to our Sepia Saturday 286 theme, go to the Sepia Saturday Blog and follow the links.
Oh now I've got your number, Alan...you bugger-lug! Delighted to hear Auntie Miriam's words did create a memory for you!
ReplyDeleteGood old Auntie Miriam! You sketched an excellent image! Also, that first photo taken at Grimsby was interesting to me because not all that long ago I wrote a novelette featuring sailing ships at Grimsby in the later 1800s.
ReplyDeleteI can almost hear her shouting at you...
ReplyDeleteI can hear her shouting at you. I would have shouted at you too! ;)
ReplyDeleteGood to see the formidable Aunt Miriam again, but I'm glad I'm too far away to hear that booming voice.
ReplyDeleteWe get quite a few fishing boats in our waters that originate from south-east Asia, and often they don't look in much better condition than that one. You wouldn't cath me going out of the harbour entrance on them.
Very atmospheric photos
ReplyDeleteI think you should be required to post at least one shot of Auntie Miriam each year, Alan! Great photos of fishing boats, but they're secondary to A.M.!
ReplyDeleteVery evocative photos on several levels, Alan.
ReplyDeleteIs "bugger-lug" a characteristic Yorkshire term of endearment?
I can see the two of you crouching down and making a run for it. Ha!
ReplyDeleteAunt Miriam almost looks as if she could be holding on to that boat single-handedly. I use the nickname 'buggerlugs' quite often, but usually about someone rather than to their face, as it's not exactly a complimentary expression.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment there, I thought Auntie Miriam had the Sarawara on a string.
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