Allan Goddard 1927 - 2010

Well known and respected trawler skipper, Allan Goddard was buried today after a short service at the Penzance Cemetery Chapel. Born to a farming family on St Martins, Isles of Scilly, Allan was educated in the islands and followed in the family footsteps working and developing the farm. Like many on the islands fishing provided additional income and he eventually made working the Busy Bee a full time job. After moving to the mainland with two young sons he moved on to bigger and better boats with the trawler Fern giving him and his son Steven many years of faithful service until his retirement.
A timeless image of Allan taken while the boat was alongside the quay in St Marys on one of the rare occasions when the Fern paid a visit to his homeland.........
from his Penzance home in Harbour View Terrace he enjoyed an uninterrupted view of the Bay, the comings and goings of the Scillonian and anything else afloat always at the end of his telescope - famously one morning spotting a container, he then summoned his crew and towed it in with the Fern - unknowingly, the container floated because it's cargo was thousands of bottle corks.......
having been brought up as an inshore fisherman, and trawlerman to the end, Allan always took the short cut when bound 'round the corner', seen here passing right underneath Gwennap Head.......
always willing to help others, son Stephen aboard the Fern passes a towline to the longlining Defiant in scuffly weather after her gearbox seized.......
when the Penlee lifeboat was lost, the Fern was the first boat on the scene the following morning to assist the rescue services..........
ashore he was a founder member of the Newlyn Fishermen's Association and active in all the events of the 70s and 80s when arguments forced fishermen in their thousands to lose sea time and travel from all over the UK to lobby Parliament - Allan was great friends with fellow trawlerman David Williams, skipper of the Gamrie Bay and is seen here with David's son Kevin in London........
both the Fern and the Gamrie Bay, along with the.......
Pathfinder were the first Cornish boats to rig up for prawn fishing and work the deep water north of Land's End on the Smalls.......
on one prawning trip, poor weather forced the fleet of small boats to run for port and they found themselves weather-bound in Milford Haven - seeing that they were likely to be there for a few days the boats decided to land what fish and prawns they had caught to the infamous local fish buyer Peter Wright - on the advice of some locals in the Galleon pub at lunchtime, who told that the prices for prime fish were appalling, a huge turbot that was part of the Fern's catch was kept back and cooked for tea - you could tell that skipper Allan wasn't totally convinced of the provenance of this yarn by his crew, as the whole fish, wrapped in foil, half folded and jammed in the oven owing to its size, was cooked and devoured by four happy diners, Floyd would have been proud.........
the following year saw some of the Cornish prawn fleet work the summer months up in the Clyde, seen here towing alongside Ailsa Craig.......
and in Girvan Harbour with another local boat, the trawler Keriolet, seen in the background against the quay......
like every fisherman, every skipper dreams of a big haul, and eight and a half tones of dogfish was one of Allan's - for a time in the 1980s Newlyn played host to a significant fleet of inshore and near water trawlers, the Ben My Chree, Defiant, Keriolet, Galillean, Gamrie Bay, Marina, Scarlet Thread, Rose of Sharon, Confide, Nicola Marie, Excellent, Trewarveneth, Jacqueline, Anthony Stevenson, Girl Patricia, Defiant, Three Lads, La Critique, Lia G, Buckie, Les Deux Marcel........
of course things go the other way sometimes, here, friend and fellow trawler skipper, Dave Rodda having donned his diving gear is about to help remove a huge anchor from the Fern's net - while Allan's fishing son Steven looks on from the deck in front of fellow inshore trawlerman Grimmy Mike.