A certain Fred Steele commits pen to paper!

For all those who fished from Newlyn back in the 70s and 80s the name Fed Steele will bring back many memories - many of which would be unrepeatable in the proximity of those with tender ears and of sensitive disposition! Fred, ex-skipper of both privately owned and Stevenson's vessels has written and published his own memoirs in what could be the first of several books - this early chapter in his life ends around 1972 just as he is about to embark on a new career doing a 'proper job' fishing from Newlyn.

Copies of the book can be obtained from Barron's Newsagent in Newlyn or Books Plus on the Terrace in Penzance at £9.99 or for those who are not in the area, give Fred a call on 00351 919254648.

A review of the book as it appears in the Cornishman.

St Ives 75 years ago today - the 'forgotten lifeboat disaster'

St Ives Harbourmaster, Stephen Basset (left) will lead a memorial service in the village today.

In the early hours of the morning, 70 years ago today, the St Ives lifeboat was launched to the rescue of an unknown stricken vessel off Godrevy Point. Hours later and after capsizing three times, the lifeboat was washed ashore on rocks at Godrevy. Only one of the lifeboat crew survived, he walked ashore from the rocks where the boat was wrecked.

See an account of the story here and an image gallery of the lifeboat.

Deepest water fish filmed for first time

Any boats working the deep water off the edge of the Continental Shelf might just get one of these in the gear - a short video clip of the deepest living fish filmed to date.

Still sunk

Day 2 and the Roseland still sits on the bottom while a decision is made on how to float her.....
good to see the red duster flying on the visiting tug Pendennis......
one piece of sheet steel waiting to replace the cut-out section of the Billy Rowney's side.....

floured and seasoned Mount's Bay sprats fried in olive oil finish off the day.

Fishermen's fight for a new landing quay in Helford upsets some locals

Watch Inside Out on BBC1 tonight at 7.30 for an in-depth look at this story.

Catch it in the news or on BBC iPlayer

After five years of trying, Helford fishermen including Chris Bean (Lady Hamilton), have still to move forward in their plans to have a landing quay and small road built to allow for a safer working environment . Many 'local' residents have written to object to the construction work. A significant percentage of the objections come from second home owners who have property in the tiny village.

Cornwall is what it is and owes much of its culture, heritage and financial dependence to commercial and leisure maritime activities, which includes fishing.

What is considered 'quaint' by many visitors is, in fact, the activities of very real working lives and the fabric of many communities where people are actively engaged in fishing for a living - these people and their way of life must be allowed to evolve as their have thier ancestors before them - no one should be able to halt progress and 'preserve' the past as a living edifice by means of privilege, money or other means and deprive these artisnal workers of living their lives as their needs dictate - especially people like Chris Bean who looks to the future and goes to great lengths to fish for and market the very highest quality fish - much of which is supplied to sushi chefs 'up country'. London Town, where many second-home owners live or work is home to many an ancient monument offering an indication of life in the past; the significance of St Paul's Cathedral is no less diminished in being surrounded by modernity - the two co-exist. If these people wanted control over 'their' plot they should have bought a much larger little bit of England (or Cornwall) sans neighbours - as it is, they have bought into the village of Helford and should therefore accept all that that entails - it is not a living museum or heritage site for those permanent residents who live in and around the village.





In this year that celebrates the bi-centennial of Darwin's birth and his book, Origin of the Species, this incident represents a far more serious interruption in the natural evolution of our working environment than resident who recently complained bitterly about the noise emanating from some boats landing fish in Newlyn Harbour during the night!

See the full story here.

A sorry site as the Roseland sinks

Lying against the quay just as the tide starts to make, the Roseland is watched over by shore staff from Stevenson's who will have the task of pumping out and refloating her later to day...
they will have to wait until the tide is falling this afternoon before they can begin pumping and attempt to find the cause of the leak....
the Rosleand was converted to gill netting in the ealry 90s but has not been active fishing since the 1970s when she was side trawling......
passing lifeboat from Ilfracombe heads out of the gaps now the weather has fined away for her trip round the corner and up the channel to her home base.....

with bad weather continuing from last Thursday there were only a handful of fish lots on the market this morning - biggest was 3 tons of high quality pollack from the CarolH that had sailed on Monday and shot off the Lizard - the fish made good prices averaging around £4+ a kilo - here Edwin, from Ocean Fish, reports back to base on a small shot of sprats taken by their boat, the Resolute ,overnight.

5000 odd miles to go

Looks like it is not only Newlyn under heavy skies - check out the latest news from Pete Goss aboard the Spirit of Mystery, three days out and only 150 miles on the log!