Moray Firth fishing disaster
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The Moray Firth fishing disaster of August 1848 was one of the worst fishing
disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...
s in maritime history on the east coast of
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, and was caused by a severe
storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...
that struck the Moray Firth. The event led to widespread improvements to harbours and significant changes to the design of fishing boats over the remainder of the 19th century.


Fishing history

Scottish fishing boats of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were generally small sail boats with open hulls that mainly fished close to shore. The shallow design of the boats allowed them to be launched by their crew from
beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...
es or small harbours, but their open hull provided little shelter for the crew and made them susceptible to swamping and
capsizing Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fr ...
in rough seas.
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fishermen had been fishing for herring in the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
from the 15th century, and had developed a large scale system of "Buss" fishing in deeper waters using large boats which stayed at sea for several weeks and cured the fish aboard the vessels. To compete with this method, the Government of the day introduced a bounty system which initially rewarded fishermen for using larger vessels, but later paid the bounty based on the size of catch. This led to a gradual increase in the size of fishing vessel operating from the East Coast harbours, although open hulls were still favoured because this allowed the maximum possible catch to be accommodated.


The storm and its aftermath

The weather on the afternoon of 18 August was favourable, promising good fishing and, from
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to
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, around 800 boats set out to sea to gather the day's herring catch. By midnight the weather was deteriorating rapidly with strengthening winds and increasingly heavy seas. Many skippers decided to haul their nets and make for shelter. During the following
storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...
, 124 boats were lost, many while trying to enter harbour, and 100 fishermen lost their lives, leaving behind 47 widows and 161 children. In the aftermath of the storm, the Government appointed Captain John Washington of the
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to conduct an inquiry into the tragedy and make recommendations for safety improvements in the fishing industry. His report, entitled ''Report on the loss of life, and damage caused to fishing boats on the East Coast of Scotland, in the gale of 19 August 1848'', was presented to the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
in 1849. Washington came to two main conclusions: firstly, that the open-hulled design of the fishing boats was deficient, leading to their susceptibility to swamping in heavy seas, and was a significant factor in the tragedy; secondly, that there was a shortage of good quality harbours accessible to fishing vessels in all tidal conditions. Washington's recommendations led to a programme of improvements to the many small harbours around the east coast of Scotland. The Fishery Board for Scotland also encouraged the introduction of decked vessels. The main types of boat used for herring fishing on the east coast were the Fifie, and the smaller Skaffie which was common around the Moray Firth. Fishermen initially resisted the introduction of decks because it reduced the space available for the catch, and they also feared that a deck would increase the risk of men being swept overboard. Gradually, the provision of decks on the boats became more common, which led to a further increase in boat size to compensate for the reduced space for the catch. In addition to decks, new boats were being built with a small
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in the bow, which contained bunks and provided shelter for the fishermen. This evolution in boat design led to the introduction of the Baldie in 1860 and the Zulu in 1879. By the end of the century all the east coast fishing vessels were fully decked.


See also

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Maritime history of Scotland The Maritime history of Scotland involves events including shipping, ports, navigation, and seamen, as well as marine sciences, exploration, trade, and maritime themes in the arts of Scotland. Royal Scots Navy James I was responsible for dev ...
*
Eyemouth Disaster The Eyemouth disaster was a severe European windstorm that struck the south-eastern coast of Scotland on 14 October 1881. One hundred and eighty-nine fishermen, most of whom were from Eyemouth, were drowned. Many citizens of Eyemouth call the ...
*
Scottish East Coast Fishery The Scottish east coast fishery has been in existence for more than a thousand years, spanning the Viking Age right up to the present day. A brief history The fishery has always been for both whitefish and herring. The Norsemen came to Scotland ...


References

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External links


The history of herring fishing on the east coast of Scotland
{{1848 shipwrecks Fishing in Scotland Natural disasters in Scotland 1848 disasters in the United Kingdom Weather events in Scotland 1848 meteorology Maritime incidents in August 1848 Maritime incidents in Scotland 1848 in Scotland Fishing disasters European windstorms August 1848 events