Smoko!

Not likely to miss this German tour bus in your rear view mirror.........
there's no smoke without fire, especially in your chimney........
on an otherwise pretty quiet night.

Grab a pint and a picture at the Tolcarne Inn

For a few days more, Nick Henshall's superbly evocative charcoal drawings that capture fishermen at work in the port will be on show at the Tolcarne Inn over the Bank Holiday this weekend. Why not take shelter from the forecast heavy rain and enjoy a meal or just a pasty and pint while you take in the moody pictures and soak up the atmosphere of an historic harbourside pub........

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if you are there around 8pm on Saturday evening you'll get the chance to join in some May mayhem and madness as the May Horns procession assembles and then wends its way via the sidetsreets and lanes before coming to a halt at the Admiral Benbow in historic Chapel Street.

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Fifteen identify their fish.

Lionel works his magic and conjures up another fish for the trainee chefs from Jamie Oliver's Fifteen to identify whilst visiting the market this morning.....
always a tough call to tell the difference between those lemons, megrims and witches........
not so the monk or angler fish - this beast's 'angling rod' here being shown to the rest of the party.....
with smoking, spitting and drinking banned on the market some people are caught between a rock and a hard place it seems.......
hard at it as the sun comes up, the rudder from the Billy Rowney gets some personal attention from the heavy metal team.

Party night.

Not one of the world's prettiest of ships in Pendennis Shipyard over at Falmouth Docks......

much interest, but not from the fish in the Coombe River it seems.......

the latest work from the resident artist aboard the Ben My Chree........

across the quay the Dom Bosco's paint job, started this time last year, appears to have got under way again.......

fresh zinc brightens up the hull below the waterline on the Billy Rowney........

let's hope its a good one for Lionel, he has an early start in the morning!

Radio 4s Mark Steel was in Penzance at the Acorn - listen up!

While it's still available on BBC iPlayer make sure you catch Radio 4's Mark Steel at the Acorn giving a highly irreverent look at Penzance and the surrounding area and the people who live there - why city folks flocked to try a new drug called fish - or smackerel as some wag in the audience had it - unmissable!

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.

Top secret gear on the quay.

Harvest Reaper heads back in through the gaps......
looks like the wraps have come off some top secret new trawl gear aboard the Nellie.......
the fleet's flagship, with a smiling Bill Laken in the stern, heads out for another trip......
the anglers are out in force.......
waiting for the tide.

Muchos mackerel.

Stacked 8 high and palleted, the mackerel have finally move close inshore......
net fish under the hammer.......
no time like the present to take ice.......
back to land with the mornings work for Joey......
she went in as the Geudell and will come out as the Ivor B.

Hull trawler challenge.

Imagine finding these handcoloured glass lantern slides stashed away in the attic? For anyone with any knowledge of the boats concerned, the H1 SS Canada and H413 SS New Zealand contact the web site. There may be collections similar to this in and around Newlyn of course - who knows? Some of the images can be purchased in print form online. The projectors used to show these slides ranged from the very crude to the incedibly ornate.

More mackerel makes Monday's market.

Good to see the Star's gardners club is flourishing......
bet the Mission was packed this morning......
many mackerel make the men in punts happy......
there's a few spiders on the move......
the Gary M made another fine shot of big flats.....
hopefully with a mood of optimism spreading through the port the boats that land away to Plymouth market will soon be encouraged to return.......
the Harvest Reaper makes a slow entrance trying to find a berth to land in......
check out the latest show at the Orion Gallery which includes the Newlyn Society of Artsits latest offering, where there are some diferences being expressed by some members........
old oilskins put to good use.......
the Alf towing Morlaix registered crabber......
Steren Mor past the Low Lee buoy.

Changing seasons

Despite not having a head for heights - hence the moral support up the ladder - young Mr Curtis slaps on the silver anti-rust paint.....
and there's plenty of hull to go.....
inch by inch.......
the Caterpillar genny engine gets lowered down through the deck.......
this time the paint is rolled on atop the foremast......
power aplenty aboard the new Leach fish chasing machine.