You won’t keep us out, say scallop trawler crews facing peril on the sea
A Devon-based boat had to flee from French attackers but the skipper is defying threats to return
JUST before the sun rose over the English Channel early on Tuesday, a flare whistled past Rob Morley’s ear. The 34-year-old panicked. He was on the deck of scallop trawler Golden Promise, trying to pull fishing gear aboard so the three-man crew could escape the aggressive French boats that had surrounded them. A set of shackles flew towards him and he leapt inside the cabin.
“It was pitch black and I could hear screaming and hollering from all around,” he recalls. “My legs were shaking.”
Another flare went off, this time straight into the air, which signalled the French had surrounded one more English boat.
It was around 3:30am and for the next hour, a fleet of close to 40 French boats would attack the five British trawlers as part of what has been called the “scallop wars”.
French fishermen threw shackles, rocks, engine oil, flares and eggs at UK boats in the Baie de Seine in an attempt to stop the British from fishing in their waters.
Trouble had been brewing since Aug 21, when the French failed to reinstate an annual “gentleman’s agreement” that allowed small British boats to fish for scallops in their waters before the season officially begins on Oct 1.
Before they went to France, the South West Fish Producers Organisation (SWFPO) warned Golden Promise’s crew to “do it in force”.
“They knew something was going to happen, but it shouldn’t have been assault,” says Derek Meredith, the owner of Golden Promise and its smaller sister boat Joanna C, which is based in Brixham, Devon. “They should have just escorted us out.”
Scallopers have clashed off the coast of France before. A similar attack in 2012 involved French fishermen pelting British boats with rocks and shackles until they left.
But that was not as bad as this year, says Barry Young, managing director of Brixham Trawler Agents. “This one was planned. The boats came from three fishing ports and had obviously arranged to meet.”
The French surrounded the British, hurled objects and blocked their escape. A galley window on Golden Promise smashed. “If it had been rough and water had come in, it could have sunk us,” says Brian ‘Winkle’ Whittington, the boat’s skipper.
Golden Promise and Joanna C eventually fled for port. Behind them, the French continued to attack Kentish boats Kestrel and Honeybourne III, which appeared to catch fire.
Around 18 hours later, Golden Promise pulled into Brixham harbour with an exhausted crew who had lost around £25,000 by returning to shore early.
Within two days, Mr Whittington and Mr Morley, ley, his second-in-command, had fixed the window, washed the egg and engine oil from the bow and were ready to return to sea for another week. “You won’t keep me down,” says Whittington. Mr Meredith said: “Winkle’s a bit harder than the Joanna C crew. They’re quite shell-shocked so I’m leaving them in harbour for a few days.”
Mr Whittington plans to return to French waters tomorrow with up to 40 other British boats. If the French attack again, it won’t be easy to see them coming – they turned their lights and identification systems off last time so they were hidden in the dark – but Mr Whittington will be on the lookout.
The French have threatened to escalate their action, with some saying they might bring catapults or guns. Mr Whittington hopes there will be safety in numbers – or that the Navy will come to protect them. Only an official warning from the SWFPO or Government will stop them.
Today, as the crew brace themselves to re-enter international waters, they will stop fishing and sit down for a roast dinner – just as they do every week at sea.