Common in ports

“I was interested in the recent photograph in your column showing the Montrose fishing fleet in bygone days,” writes James Bowman of Pittenweem. “A considerable number of these standard ‘Fifie’ type sailing fishing boats must have existed in east coast ports in these times.

“In 1899, my grandfather, Thomas Lawson, took delivery of a new 70-feet Fifie, built at Pittenweem and named Margaret Lawson ML286. The boat fished at Yarmouth that autumn.

“Annually from then until 1937 the boat was employed in gill net herring fishings in the areas Firth of Forth, Peterhead and Yarmouth. At times, between these fisheries, the boat great lined for large fish such as cod, skate and halibut. My grandfather was the sole owner and skipper of the boat throughout the whole period.

“During the First World War the majority of steam drifters were on admiralty service which reduced the catching power of the fishing fleet. The government then made available, and encouraged, the installation of engines into all types of sailing fishing boats to make up this deficit and Margaret Lawson, like many more, was ‘motorised’.

“The photograph on the right shows the Margaret Lawson in the 1920s.

“The building of more advanced types of fishing vessels and new methods of fishing meant that the time for the Fifies had passed and by the beginning of the Second World War few of them existed.”

“I caught a glimpse of this cheeky chap near Auchtermuchty,” says James Thomson who sent in the photograph.