The First Grimsby Steam Trawler - ever!

The "Gannet" shown above was actually the very first Grimsby Steam Boat.  Not a trawler as such, it was built across the Humber, in Hull, with the specific purpose of collecting fish from the sailing drifters and then to race (!) back to port to catch the fish trains to the London Billingsgate fish Market.  Even with a puny 17 HP engine, the boat was still able to punch directly into wind through heavy seas, which drifters could not do.  This gave the owners the ability to get reasonably fresh fish back to port fairly quickly, provided the fleets were not too far off the  East Coast.  Some drifters actually had large seawater tanks set in the centre of the vessel to hold live fish, to try to cope with the problem.  However, this proved an immense disadvantage during stormy weather as the drifters became almost dead in the water and losses were truly enormous.  On one stormy January night alone in the late 1800's over 800 men were lost from Hull and Grimsby. Such were the hazards of the early fishing industry.

Watercolour .Picture size 24" x  18" on 190 gm paper.  Since no pictures of the boat were available to me, I had to work from original makers drawings.

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