Berth wanted!

Inspiring stuff! - Skipper Phil "all hail the hake' Mitchell and the boys on the Govenek of Ladram

At the end of last year we all enjoyed watching the Channel 4 TV series, The Catch - especially the episodes that featured young, and not so young and willing (and not so willing) 'decky learners' - new entrants to the industry.  As a result of the TV series there has been an upsurge in keen would-be-fishermen signing up for the mandatory safety and Introduction to fishing courses throughout the UK.

"On the crest of a wave"

One of these keen gentlemen has contacted Through the Gaps and asked if he can be put in touch with a boat willing to give him a chance?

Hi, my name is Steven and would just like to enquire about any commercial fishing from Newlyn. I am waiting to start a 3 week introduction to fishing course in May and have been advised to contact any ports or fishermen. I cannot seem to find any contactable skippers and I need someone to take me out when I have gained my certificates.  If you know of anyone looking for a new deckhand and willing to give someone a chance could you please contact me. 

Thank-you for your time. Steven Coundley - 07460077966

If you are in a position to do so, give the guy a call! 

If you need crew or a berth use @FindaFishingJob - it's free!:

 https://twitter.com/FindaFishingJob

There's a party going on south west of Lundy!

You can tell it is April month by the number of UK, Breton, French and Belgian fishing boats 'up channel' - in the Bristol Channel.  At this time of year fish like cod, whiting, plaice, lemons and Dover soles are more abundant off the north Cornish coast.  All the Belgian and UK boats are beam trawlers - all the French and Breton boats are stern trawlers.  The guys on the ISS might even be able to see them all at night when they have their deck lights switched on!

That's fishing sometimes.

The Filadelfia heads in through the gaps some 18 hours after heading out of them...

yesterday, steaming north 'up Channel' and then deciding to head back south - and then having to head for home again - feeling the frustration Don.

The building of Newlyn Harbour.

Inspiration to develop Newlyn Harbour came from a number of people whose interests ranged between concern for the well-being of fishermen to commercial interest concerned with the landing and sale of fish. The vicars at St Peter's Church, best represented by the Rev Wladislaw Lach-Szyrma motivated by humanitarian concerns played a key role in the initial fight for the harbour while commercial interests perhaps represented best by the entrepreneur and land owner Thomas Bedford Bolitho continued the impetus. The photograph above shows a proud Thomas Bedford Bolitho in top hat surrounded by other dignitaries at the opening of the North pier on July 3rd 1894. 1894.

This Open Day covers the full development of Newlyn Harbour from the election of its first harbour commissioners in 1884 to the present time. It spans the building of the South and North Piers, the erection of two fish markets in 1908 and 1988 and the building of the Mary Williams Pier. It highlights the Newlyn Riots and their aftermath when for nine years from 1897-1906, the management of the harbour was taken over by the Public Works Loan Board. 

From 1906, when the harbour was returned to its elected commissioners and was becoming more prosperous, there were considerable developments in its infrastructure with a new trawl fish quay, a coastguard boathouse, new harbour offices, new market facilities and RR Bath's new ice house where Newlyn made its own ice for the first time. Alongside this, the fishing fleet was becoming larger with foreign boats using harbour facilities alongside the growing fleet of Newlyn boats, the most prominent of which, was the post WW2  c Stevenson fleet.

Hopefully, the exhibition pinpoints some of the key figures along the way, including the harbour masters, William Oats Strick in 1886, to our present Rob Parsons. But we rely on our visitors to add to the growing dossier of information we have amassed about Newlyn Harbour.

All over Newlyn, hanging on walls, stashed away in cupboards or loft spaces there must be all kinds of documents and relics form Newlyn's past - like this mooring plan of the harbour...

drawn up in 1912 ...

by local surveyor B**** Maddern (maybe someone can idenify the man?)...

- not sure what or why the hulks are there - maybe used as gear stores or places to work from.
The Open Day 'The Building of Newlyn Harbour' is at Trinity Centre, Chywoone Hill, Newlyn on April 2016, from 10am until 3pm - come alomg and ask more questions, bring your own photos, documents or relics to be identifed or even provide some answers!

Full of the finest #FishyFriday fish!

A very wet looking moon hangs over Newlyn this morning, portent of a damp day perhaps...

something Tom will be keeping an eye on...

two unexpected beam trawlers figured on the landing board this morning...

so for a lucky few buyers there were limited supplies of top quality fish like these Dover soles...

and some cracking big turbot...

for those with the kind of customers...

who deal with only the best fish that Newlyn can offer like these red mullet...

Dovers...

and at the other end of the market where the boxes were stacked four or five high...

there were plenty of good sized hake...

and a handful of the very biggest 6+ kilo fish...

huge ling...

and plenty of ray for the more discerning buyers...

with bidding keen as ever of a #FishyFriday...

even for the end of season cuttles...

and beginning of season haddock...

ray don't get better than these day-boat fish from the Imogen III...

a 'git louster' of a ling to use the Cornish vernacular for the very biggest examples...

 as always the fish from the Lisa...

is bright and shiny...

this little chap bears the name of that most famous African tribe and the eponymous film named after them...

a walk in the dark for the Ministry...

as the fish begin to be whisked away...

for the next week there is a great opportunity to enjoy classic sailing on the kind of boat...

that moved huge amounts of goods around the Cornish coast...

the Bessie Ellen...

is a stunning example, maintained as she would have been on the day she was launched in Plymouth in 1904...

she would have visited Mount's Bay on many occasions...

these days the quayside in Newlyn is filled with fishing gear like these pots waiting to go aboard the Rowse crabbers and deployed at sea...

all set for the next trip aboard the Admiral Grenville...

wood boat building skills are very much alive in the south-west... 

with courses available at Falmouth Marine School...

 to see that the skills required are not lost to generations to come able to build in sustainable wood and not steel...

a look away East as the sun cracks the cloud...

the business end of the ex-landing craft Seven Sins from Keynvor Marine Contractors...

a painterly scene for anyone wishing to brave the chilly morning air...

with the local gigs in still waters...

waiting for the off, heavy fish transport with the iceworks in the background...

must have been quite a day for Debs in the Star Inn with some of the ports more legendary fishing socialites enjoying birthdays...

no way through past the Mission today...

guess the Newlyn School artist from the brushwork.