A surprise catch at Scarborough Harbour

Iwas fascinated by the recent story of three python snakes at Sandybed Lane, two of them found in bins near St Augustine’s School. I have a couple of snake stories. Here’s one of them.

Auntie Dee had just finished a jigsaw of Scarborough Harbour and now wanted to see the harbour for real. South Bay was buzzing. Penny arcades, cafes, bars, fish and chips, seafood, ice cream.

It was busy, though she could remember even busier days when many trawlers would come in to unload their catches of fish. She remembered once seeing a huge pile of potatoes at the dock side. Going out or coming in? What a surprise, potatoes on the harbour side!

Little did Auntie Dee know there would be a bigger surprise today at the harbour.

Certainly the harbour had seen different times. There’s the Tunny Club, celebrating the time when tunny fishing was at its prime. Visitors from far and wide and overseas came to catch those enormous fish, the tunny. She smiled as she walked past the cute old police telephone box.

Look! Stacks of lobster pots, floats and fishing nets, all in the space where those potatoes had been.

What was happening today? Speed boat rides. The Hispaniola pirate ship. The Regal Lady – a Dunkirk legend. Lots of seaside signs. Avoid feeding the seabirds. Many opportunities for fishing trips. Porpoise spotting boat trips. A Seagrown boat, part of the new initiatives for seaweed use.

A lifeboat was there at the ready. Various sizes of yachts joggled around on the water as the tide was coming in, their bright, white masts pointing to the clear blue sky.

Gazing down from above the harbour were Scarborough

Castle and St Mary’s Church. It was a picture-book sight, just like Auntie Dee’s jigsaw.

Suddenly there was shouting!

“It’s an adder! It’s an adder!”

A small family group was trying to catch some crabs with a line dangled into the sea from the harbour side. A crowd had gathered. One of the boys had got something. He was excited! “It’s an adder!”

“What?!” exclaimed Auntie Dee. “I’ve got to see this! An adder, a snake, in the North Sea?”

Auntie Dee had just last week seen an adder on the North York Moors, near Levisham. The adder was on the edge of the footpath in the sunshine, looking peaceful. Yet its eyes were open, staring, as if saying, “Don’t come any nearer or I’ll bite you!” An adder gives a sharp and poisonous bite, requiring fairly urgent hospital treatment. Auntie Dee indeed kept away, though she admired the beauty of the snake.

Click! A photograph! The moors was the natural place for an adder, not Scarborough Harbour!

“It’s an adder?” She moved closer to have a better look. Someone was saying in a careful, clear voice, “It’s a small haddock! Speak properly please!”

Whatever it was, it wasn’t an adder. Someone called out a joke. “Adder and chips for tea!”

Auntie Dee walked on, smiling. Past the lobster pots again. Past the cute police telephone box again. Then stalls where you could buy seafood, crab sticks, shellfish, ice cream, sticks of rock, candy floss, “Oh we do like to be beside the seaside!”

It was nearly tea time. Now, what would she have for tea? That’s right! Adder and chips! Sorry, haddock and chips, a big one please!

Photo: Fishing boats moored up in Scarborough Harbour.