Hi all, I have had in my possession for some years now the above reference 'book'. It is actually for identification of fishing boats to be found in the North Sea during WW2.
Published by Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty in November 1942 in large format and 300 pages. Identified as B.R. 786. so 80 years old this month.
It is a mine of information intended for Naval ships and Coastal Command aircraft patrolling the North Sea. It covers the fishing grounds and when they are in use and the type of fishing boats to expect and what they would be fishing for. I presume so that a suspect fishing boat could be questioned as to their activities etc.
It even describes how fishing is carried out with the different net settting procedures. For instance using the Seine net the net would be put out for 3/4 of a mile and slowly drawn in against the tide.
The pictures are all B/W and rather grainy but easy to identify. For example the Billing Mary Ann kit has several pictures of the type and identified here as Deep Sea Ketches, including all known names and numbers. In the Billing kit there is a number E382 the E means the port of registration is Esbjerg in Denmark. Interestingly the buoy attached to the mast rigging is called a Winkie. And used when fishing.
It also details the German checking and sailing area limits when out fishing also the inspection procedures. Although a dangerous activity fish got very high market prices and were themselves abundant with much being shipped to Germany. The catches were varied but fish to be found on the Dogger Bank fetched a very high price.Incidently if you ever wondered about that name, check your favourite encyclopedia for Doggerland.
Our own fishing boats had code letters to identify each boat, no doubt we had our own controls as well.
I came into ownership of the book as a friend of my brother was employed as a temp to throw out official documents on the yearly 'cull' and burn them. He was aware of my interest and he rescued it and passed it on (freely) to me.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has seen this type of book?
regards
Roy
Author
Topic: The fishing fleets of western Europe (Read 521 times)