Hull's Fishing Heritage

True stories of an English fishing community and its families, from street games and superstitions to the dangers of shipwrecks and war—includes photos.

Survivors of a wrecked trawler stagger ashore in Iceland during the bitter winter of 1910 in a hair-raising tale based upon Skipper Brewer’s handwritten log. Another skipper, “Mad” Rilatt, outwits German U-boats in the First World War. A suicide mission to war-torn Norway is undertaken in 1940 aboard a former Hull trawler. Amy Johnston, who flew to Australia single-handed, is revealed as a Hessle Road girl. And “Cowboys of the Arctic Circle” shows how Hollywood influenced the young trawler lads.

The fishing community of Hessle Road in Hull represents a unique breed of people who endured hardship from the elements in times of peace—and danger from the enemy in times of war. Within the world of the fishing families of Hull is a whole universe of humanity. Based upon interviews and three decades of research, a range of colorful tales are presented in Hull’s Fishing Heritage.