Yorkshire fisherman looks back on seven decades at sea
THERE ARE some jobs from which people can’t be separated, and talk to Colin Jenkinson for a few minutes and you’ll see he’s a fisherman. It’s in his bones.
The trade is almost woven into his DNA, he can trace his ancestors – all fishermen of Filey and Scarborough – back to the start of the 18th century, and the legacy continues with his grandson William, who still fishes out of Scarborough. His late son Bill also joined him in the trade.
This year marks Colin’s 70th year at sea, a remarkable feat for such a physical job. And the 84-year-old has spoken of his love of the profession he has been involved in since his schools days.
Born in January 1935, he got his first taste of the job aged four when he went with his father Charles just before the Second World War, and again as a schoolboy spending two or three days’ fishing for herring on the Silver Line.
Though his father said he wasn’t going to follow him to sea full-time, Mr Jenkinson had other ideas. “I first went as crew in the school holidays in 1948 and I was on a quarter share and I got
£15,” he said. “That was an awful lot of money.
“I left school in January 1950. I just missed out leaving at 14 and the school master said as soon as I was 15 I could leave.
“So on that day I came home from school and I was at sea the next day.
“The year I left school, about 12 Scarborough fishermen went labouring for the council because there was nowt much doing.
“But that next winter fish came off controlled price and everybody
who went working ashore came back into fishing because everybody was doing OK then.”
He gave that first £15 to his mother, but the opportunity to earn a decent living was only part of the attraction.
“If you’re going to be a fisherman you’ve got to want to do it or you won’t last,” he explained.
The first boat he bought was Margaret and William in 1963 and he went on to have seven over his career. His grandson still fishes on Our Sharon.