Fife Folklore, Fishing in Fife - At The Herring

Between the two world wars the great majority of East Neuk fishermen in the Kingdom of Fife, were engaged in drift-netting for herring, and long-lining for a variety of white fish. They operated on a share-system, each fisherman in a crew providing his own quota of fishing gear and sharing the earnings. Their homes were work places, for the fishing gear was stored there, and the whole family involved in caring forit, so that even the children had a large vocabulary of words connected with the industry.

Drifter was the name was given by all fishermen, Scots and English, to a particular type of boat, whether engaged in drift-netting or line-fishing. The drifters were about 90 ft. long (almost 28m.), were driven by steam and had a crew of ten men. Built of wood or iron, they entered the fishing scene towards the end of the 19th century and were lords of the fishing grounds for about half a century.

Winter herrin was The Firth of Forth herring season, from January to April, when boats from other ports joined the local fleet in the East Neuk Harbours.

Drave was the name once given to any herring season but latterly used only for the summer fishing round the northern half of Scotland. Often the fishermen would be even more specific about the summer fishing and when
asked “Are ye gaun tae the drave?”, would answer “No, the Wast Coast”, which could be anywhere from the Clyde to Stornoway.

A fleet o’ nets was the total number of nets set doon, i.e., put on board for a fishing season; or the total number of nets a share-fisherman owned.

Half-deal’sman was a man who provided no gear and therefore got only a half share when the money was divided. Often the skipper put in the gear for the half-deal’sman, and so increased his own earnings.

Garret was the whole top storey of the house used as a gear store. The word attic was used only for a part of the garret that had been separated off and made into a bedroom.

Laft was a gear store built above a cellar or wash-house in the yard. Some houses had both garret and laft.

Couples were Roof beams. Sometimes these were floored over to give more storage space and this was always referred to as “abune the couples” or “the tap garret”.

Crap-wa was the ledge formed where the top of the thick stone wall met the slope of the roof. The crap-wa’ was always used for the storage of small articles.

H’ist was the block and tackle hoist on a beam projecting outside the garret window. It was used mainly for raising and lowering gear between the street and the garret.

Galluses were the Poles and crossbeams erected in the yard for drying fishing gear out of doors.

Bark b’iler was a built-in boiler, like a wash-boiler, found in most backyards or fish-salesmen’s yards, and used for melting cutch or alum.

Barkin was Dipping black nets in a hot solution of cutch (originally oak bark, but later a solution of the resin from a Burmese acacia tree), for preservation. Although called “black nets”, they were made of dark brown cotton. Nets not regularly barked ga’ed frush, dried out, and became easily torn.

Alumin was Dipping white nets in a hot solution of alum. White nets were used almost exclusively by East Neuk men for the winter herring fishing in the Forth. Few fishermen in other areas had white nets.

Fake was to Fold the nets in a to-and-fro manner so that they would run out easily when required. After fakin’ they were tied into easily handled bundles, using the tials that were an integral part of the net.

Cork rape was a rope, with corks at regular intervals, bordering one edge of the net. The cork rape was near the surface of the sea when the net was in use.

Sma’ rape was a rope with no corks, at the foot of the net when in the sea. In the East Neuk, the word rape was used only for these two ropes, which were part of the drift net, and not for other ropes.

Head-bau’ks were the remaining two ropes with which the net was bordered.

Pirns were empty cotton reels used as markers on fishing gear. The owner carved his initials on the wooden reel, usually adding a third initial touching the second. This was the initial of his wife’s maiden name, indicating exactly who he was. Relatively few surnames served each village, and fore-names were usually handed down in a strict pattern, so that a pair of initials could belong
to a dozen or more men, and the third initial was required for better identification.

Mountin was attaching the cotton net to the head-bau’ks. This was done with a mending needle.

Tyin’ on was the method of attaching the remaining sides of the net to the rapes, ropes. The net had to be stretched in long lengths about waist high for this job.

Gairdin was an integral border of thicker cotton meshes along the length of the cork rape.

Ossels were short twisted cotton ties for tyin’ on. The ossels, looped into the meshes at regular intervals, were whipped to the rope, leaving five or six inches between net and rope.

Lugs or Beckets were large loops of rope at the four corners of a net.

Pallats or Boughs were large buoys made of painted canvas mounted on a circular wooden board, the pallat broad.

Tows were lengths of rope which attached the pallats to the nets, going through the lugs of two adjacent nets and so joining the fleet of nets into the long curtain-like barrier for drift net fishing.

Stoppers were similar to tows, measuring “an airm’s length an’ up tae yer elby”, but used to join the nets together at the bottom, where they were then bent on to the messenger rope.

Messenger was along thick rope which hung below the nets when they were shot. About two miles of rope were needed on the big steam drifters, and each crew member supplied two coils of 120 fathoms.

Mendin‘, this word was rarely applied to anything but mending the nets, a job always the responsibility of the women, although the men would pit in a needlefu’ if they had nothing else to do.

Mender was a woman, often a widow, who earned her living by going out to mend nets. She could be paid by the day or the hour and frequently had her meals with the family for whom she worked.

Mendin’ needle or net needle was a narrow single-ended shuttle with a tongue, which held the cotton for mending. It was made of wood or bone. Fishermen often made bone needles as a pastime and it was mainly the children who filled the needles ready for use.

Mask was the mesh of a net. A drift net had approximately 600,000 masks.

Chip-Mask was one leg of a broken mesh. Sometimes chip-masks were ignored when mending, and to mend a net “chip-mask hale” was to do a very thorough job.

Craw-fit was when two adjacent meshes broken.

Picky was a net full of tiny holes everywhere.

Holed, aholed net had a great many moderately sized holes.

Screedit was a net torn into long narrow tongues.

Lost, was a net too badly torn to be mended at all, yet brought home so that corks, rapes, etc., might be salvaged.

Needin’ netbit was a net with a fairly large area missing, but worth patching. Net-bit could be bought by the yard, or bits of a lost net might be used.

Amon’ Dowgs were nets that had been amongst dog-fish were almost the worst kind of nets to mend, for dog-fish often chewed without breaking the cotton and every mesh had to be tested.

Destruction. ”An awfu’ destruction” was a phrase used to indicate that every boat had had its nets very badly torn, usually by rough seas, but sometimes by merchant shipping sailing through the lines of nets. Not all
shipmasters understood the method of fishing with long lines of nets stretching out from every boat.

Lais’n was the length of net on which the mender was working. It was tied with a loop of string hung from a hook about breast-high and enabled the mender to examine the net systematically.

Swithers were invisible mites or dust, thought to be dried-up jelly fish, or perhaps dried plankton. Swithers brought great discomfort to women mending summer nets, causing streaming eyes and itching skin.

Spreadin’ the nets was a way of drying nets in summer, at the end of the season. The whole fleet of nets was taken by horse and cart to a large grassy field and all the crew, with many of the wives and children helping, spread the nets methodically on the grass. It was hard work, but still considered a highlight of the homecoming.

Meads were informal bearings to establish a position, e.g. “Kellie Law ower Siminins Kirk”.

Appearance were signs that herring shoals were present, e.g. wheeling and diving gulls or a greasy look on the water.

Shuit was to put the nets into the sea. “We’ll wait for darkness afore we shuit”.

Haul was to take the nets out of the sea.

A’ hauled was a finished hauling.

Shot was the catch. “We had a big shot this time”.

Awfu’ spatty was herring swimming in small groups instead of the usual densely packed shoal, resulting in some nets having almost no herring, while a few were well filled.

Hould was the boat’s hold into which the herring were shaken from the net.

‘Liverin ‘ was delivering the catch on to the pier, usually with the aid of the boat’s derrick, attached to the foremast.

Herrin’ basket was an officially stamped basket made to detailed specifications. Four baskets of un-gutted herring made up a cran.

Cran was a measure by which herring were sold. It was a volume measurement of 37½ gallons, and fishermen reckoned it to be about 1,000 herring. The Fishery Officer used a special barrel to check the cran-measurement and
so a catch could be referred to as 20 cran or 20 barrels. The measure is now obsolete.

Klondyking was shovelling fresh herring into large boxes with ice and coarse salt, and exporting as fresh herring. Most of the herring caught during the Firth of Forth winter herring season were Klondyked.

Herrin ‘ lassies were the women and girls who travelled to the herring ports to gut and pack herring into barrels with coarse salt for preservation. They worked in crews of three, two gutters and a packer.

Erles were the hiring fee paid to the herrin’ lassies before the start of a season by the curing firms who employed them.

Cloots were narrow strips of cotton cloth, or flour bags, for bandaging fingers before starting to work, as a protection against the sharp gutting knife and constant contact with coarse salt and strong brine.

‘Ilskin Co‘ts were the name given to large oilskin aprons worn by the herrin’ lassies. They were wide enough to go right round the back to give skirts complete protection, and they had large bibs in front.

Neepyin was a small head shawl to protect the hair.

Faurlans were large wide troughs into which the herring were tipped for gutting.

Cogs were small wooden tubs for the herring gut.

Full, large full, spent, large spent, and matje, these were the five grades into which the gutters were expected to sort the herring as they gutted. Spent herring were poor end-of-season fish. Matje or mattie described young, prime fish.

Torn-bellies were herring that had been attacked by sea predators. They were not cured, but sold cheaply to other processors. It was often possible to buy torn-bellies very cheaply from the kipperers.

Over-day’s were herring caught more than 24 hours before landing. It was not legal to cure over-day’s fish and they too were sold cheaply.

Roose was to toss the gutted herring very thoroughly in course salt before packing into barrels.

Scran was the word, meaning to pick up odds and ends, was used for a boys’ activity during the herring seasons. They scrounged round the piers and the boats, picking up every reasonable fish they could find in odd corners, then
set off for the farms and country cottages to sell the herring for a few coppers. Most of the fishermen looked kindly on scranning, and even helped a little.

Nabbies was the name given to the ring-net boats when first they came from the west coast in the Twenties to catch herring. Drift-net men disliked ring- netting, believing it would sweep the herring grounds clean of even immature fish.

Kit was a small half-barrel, with a lid on the narrow end, in which each man took his own food to the boat during the winter-herring season in the Forth. The word kit was also used on board for various other barrel-type
containers, e.g. a beef kit.

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