MANX SEA
FISHING
The sail
ported by standing rigging
main
was
the
calm
crews
ing
was
of power
source
the
the wind
or
had
was blowing head on
long oars An old paint
the length of the scoutes
to use
suggests that
about 9 metres
ended and the
by pressing
overlapped
was
but when the weather
wool
oak and the
The hull
seams were
dipped
The keels
planks
of
often used instead of
in
tar
water
where
were
usually
pine
A short
a
double
was
made
tight
planks
made of
oar was
rudder When
water
got into the boat there was only a spoocher
to bail it out
a wooden ladle or bucket
A letter written in 1786 suggests that by that
date there were larger versions of the scoute
It states that
three hundred and forty Manks
boats from 9
to
men are
ing
12
tons
each
usually employed
of this Island Their boats
most
of them
capable
are all open and
of crossing the Channel
l
Disaster
Douglas
at
J
787
thousands of years great shoals of
herring entered the coastal waters of
FOR
Probably there were
days of the Norse Kings
herring
the
first fishing boats that
of Man Certainly
about
we know anything
were open boats like
vessels
with
Norse
large square sails and their
hulls made of overlapping planks
the Isle of Man
fleets in the
Scoutes
given
to
sail of
yard
or
these
coarse
attached
between
stem
Square Sails was the name
early fishing boats The square
cloth was hung off a wooden
to the mast standing midway
and
stern
The
mast was
sup
Model of
a
carrying seven
herring fish
in the
Manx Fishing Scoute
although they seldom do it unless they are
The
illicit
employed in some illicit traffic
traffic
means smuggling
After 1765 when
the Island
was
smuggling
men
sold
became
give evidence in 1611 described
fishers driving for herring in
were
Manx
themselves
as
the North of
with Manx boats
DISASTER AT DOUGLAS
There
ing
must
the
of the
men
who ventured
out
in these
small open boats during the herring season
were farmers and crofters William Blundell
who spent some time on the Island in the
1650 s wrote
The sea feedeth more Manks
men
than the soil
have been much loss of life dur
herring fishing around
the centuries
but it
the Island
over
the great disaster at
entrance on the
night of
was
Douglas harbour
September 20th 21st 1787 which led to a new
design of fishing boat and the end of the
type of vessel The back
fishing
Douglas was in full swing and
about
300 boats had gone out to fish
probably
on the fateful
evening A south east gale
and
forced the fleet to abandon
sprang up
and
make
for harbour Unfortunately
fishing
ancient
Many
as
busses
their main
to
fishermen who fished further afield than
home waters because fower ancyent men
Mallo Caloe William Kerush John Christen
and William Corran
who were called on to
England
some
boats known
difficult and fisher
We know that there
occupation
boats and
the British Crown
more
attention
more
gave
to
Langness between the Manx
much larger English herring
scoute
off
a severe
in the year 1786 had demol
pier and its lighthouse
storm
ished the old Douglas
The
from the sale of the
takings
divided into
eight
shares went
to
farmers
the
one to
share each
to
shares in
were
times
three
of the
owners
the
herring
early
owner
nets
often
of the boat and
the four men who
operated
a
the
boat
Repairs
as
had
not
been carried
out
and
only
a
up on the ruins of the old quay acted
a substitute
light As the returning herring
lamp
set
fleet made for the entrance
of the boats struck and
supporting
the
light
to
the harbour
one
the post
Darkness and chaos fol
destroyed
lowed
Life aboard the
scoutes was very hard
ballast of stones carried
they lay at
the nets
Nets corks
to
steady
The
the boats
as
sealed in any way
and the catch offish lay on
was not
buoys
top of the ballast Ifa sudden storm came on
the ballast might move and cause the boat to
capsize
The
scoutes were
described
as
our
poor shells when a letter had to be written in
1754 to Whitehaven to explain an incident off
Some boats mistook lanterns on the
beach for the quay light and drove ashore on
the
50
Fishing
Smack
c
1820
At
almost
behind
least
21
the quay
lost
were
men
were
One way
or
perhaps
up to
drowned
For
century afterwards Manx fishermen
would not fish on the date of the Douglas
a
disaster
When the Manx
renewed all the
least
boat
Manx
beach
another many boats
fishing
replacement
partly decked
adopted
and
a new
fleet
vessels
was
were at
type of
fishing
the old
SMACKS
oars
The
new
and
were
fishing
1790
period roughly
ilar
to a common
west
of
coasts
smacks
boats
the chief
were
called
were
herring
to
1830
smacks
They
were
fore and aft
with their
scoutes
square rig They had a single
three sails The sails were mainsail
jib
mast
and
forestay
This type of boat was built in two
ones of 8 to 12 tons used in the
gruelling task when
was a
and the
small
used for
fish
and
larger
buyers or
Mediterranean
ones
of 40 60
trading
John Fel
countries
tham who wrote ofhis visit
to
the Isle ofMan
in 1797 said that Manx boatbuilders
commonly
clever
the eye making no
in laying the keel
tons
merchants
were un
use
of line
According
were
or
rule
to his
7
to
unless
descrip
10
metres
long and 4 metres across at the widest part A
disadvantage with these boats was that the
mast could not be lowered
there
of the
man
wallet
back
bread
a
instead ofthe
A
Large
brought
an
his
provision
osier basket
bannock
cheese
some
oatcake
on
or
his
barley
and his butter
mayhap
box for this
feed
The
men
crew
The
of
a
smack
was
of the boat
owner
if the
owner
herring
takings were divided
2 for the
each for the
nets were
usually
six
into 9 shares
1 for the
hired
and
net
share
one
crew
The illustration of Richard
Maria
Smack
spoocher
used
on
of Port St
Mary
s
smack
shows the
Karran
larger
type which sailed to foreign ports The
Maria was probably registered in 1789 and
was
of 46
tons
tons
smacks
shipyard
Maria
crew
murlin
or
with
bigger
The half decked smacks gave some protec
tion when men were eating or sleeping There
The
A Manx newspaper ac
describing life on a
1848
constructing entirely by
tion the herring smacks
was a pump
cooking and
Hauling the nets
a wind was blowing
smack earlier in the century
was no stove on board and
fishing
stated
each
rough
sea
written in
count
for
no stove
be used
to
small
herring fishing
with
rigged
cutter
single
sizes
sim
type of boat used along the
England and Wales The
vessels unlike the old
sail and
for the
boats
but
scoutes
continued
burthen
including
We hear of
one
in Peel in 1793 with
even
built at Crellin
a
Some ofthese
such ports
as
Italy They
s
burthen of 60
larger smacks traded with
Naples Genoa and Leghorn in
would carry
a
cargo of red her
rings
and
or
salt
on the outward voyage
Britain with cargoes of onions
wine When the herring fishermen
herrings
return to
fruit
or
made the
change
from the open
the halfdecked smacks
following
scoutes
to
the disaster
they probably copied the
new boat design from larger vessels of this
type already in use by fresh fish buyers and
red herring traders The large smacks them
selves would join in the herring fishing some
at
Douglas
times
in 1787
when trade
WJ RRlug
m
U
was
slack
i
k
fF
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pt i
M
c
Y
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gJlitd0
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Another type of boat seen in Manx waters in
the eighteenth and early nineteenth century
the two masted wherry
used by fresh
buyers who would meet the fishermen at sea
and buy herring for a quick passage to ports
in England and Ireland These light fast
boats were not necessarily Manx built
was
A
@ Manx
Wherry
Heritage
Foundation 1992
00