Off the Dogger Bank

Back in the 1800's most fishing was carried out by sail driven drifters.  The problem lay in getting fresh fish back to port.  Some drifters carried their catch live in central tanks, but there was a considerable time lag between catching and delivering.  To overcome this problem, three steam carriers were ordered to be built in Hull, to go out with the fleets and bring back the catch as quickly as possible to meet the night fish trains to London.  The picture above was created from the original working drawings of Boat No.3 the  "Pelican".  Steel hull, minimal bridge protection (tarpaulins!) and a 17 hp coal fired steam engine.   The fish was floated across to the "Pelican" in crates and hand loaded, prior to dashing back to port.  Hard enough in calm weather, but a wickedly difficult operation in heavy seas.  It wasn't long before it occurred to the owners that the traditional  sailing drifters could be superseded by steam driven vessels - and thus the steam fishing trawler was born.

Watercolour 24" x 18"  on 190gn paper.

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