A great snapshot of the fishing fleet that worked from Newlyn in the 1940s after the Second World War. At the time there was a growing number of long liners that fished mainly for ling, ray and skate, As a summer fishery, long lining carried on until well into the 1980s when gill netting for hake became the ''next big thing'!
For many years the long liners used squid caught by the trawlers in the fleet, until a more adventurous fish merchant discovered that the rest of Europe would kill for squid. The boats would work around 24 baskets of lines shot at night and hauled the next day. mackerel and pilchards were used as bait most of the time. The hooks were big and brutal, getting 'hooked up' was common enough when 'shooting' the lines from the stern of the boat - normally three men stood around the basket baiting as they were shooting - the 'shooter' was ostensibly in charge and it was down to him to alert the skipper if there was a 'frap' when a hook became caught in a basket of came out in the wrong order. With the boats working many miles offshore in the summer getting hooked up also meant getting treated at sea - it was simple enough - a pair of pliers was used to snip of the end of the hook which allowed the hook to be pushed out the way it went in - not always a pain-free affair!
Usually, the boats worked two sets of lines 12 baskets long with, jut like netting, an anchor and dhan at either end.
Newlyn Long Loners in the 1970s included the Kilravock, Girl Pat, Girl Pat III, Defiant, Spes Firma, Ben My Chree, Rose of Sharon, Alida, Castle Wraith, Spaven Mor, Dew-Genen-Ny, Bonny Mary, Renovelle, Our John and Gallach Millis.
