Fishing industry disaster

Three Score and Ten

Jim Potter has been singing this song for several years.
He is accompanied on this occasion by the group with which he sings, Three Score and Ten, of the same name.

by Jim Potter talking to Sam Dodds
Barnsley, Yorkshire

Fishing Industry
folkleads.org.uk

Three Score and Ten

Jim Potter has sung this song for several years and has found out some interesting background to the song, including this report that was published in the Hull Times at the time of the disaster:

‘As day after day passes and no tidings arrive of the missing Grimsby smacks, it is beginning to be realised that the gale of the 9th ult. will prove one of the most disastrous to the Grimsby fishing trade on record. altogether nearly a dozen fishing vessels, carrying between 60 and 70 hands, are missing.

Most of the vessels were provisioned for eight or nine days, and many of them have been out for over a month. Of the safety of seven of them all hope has now been abandoned. The vessels are:

• Sea Searcher, trawl smack, owner Mr Joseph Ward: five hands;
• John Wintringham, cod smack, master and owner Mr John Guitesen: Eleven hands;
• Eton, iron steam trawl smack, owner Mr H. Smethurst, jnr: eight hands;
• British Workman, cod smack, owner Mr Thomas Campbell: seven hands;
• Sir Frederick Roberts, trawl smack, master and owner Mr. W. Walker: five hands;
• Kitten, trawl smack, owner James Meadows: five hands;
• Harold, trawl smack, master and owner Mr Blakeney: five hands.

Portions of the wreckage from the Kitten have been picked up at sea and brought into port, and the British Workman was seen to be reduced to a mere wreck by a heavy sea on the morning of the gale.

Many of the men who have been lost leave wives and families, and an immense amount of distress will be caused amongst the fishing population. The total number of vessels lost will, it be feared, be near 15, and of lives lost between 70 and 80.’

Hull Times, 2 March 1889

The song derives from a poem by W. Delf, a Grimsby fisherman, according to several sources, ‘A ballad in memory of the fisherman from Hull and Grimsby who lost their lives in the gale of 8 and 9 February, 1889’ and was published to raise funds for the bereaved families.

The poem has been published in ‘The Oxford Book of Local Verses’, where a note says ‘Supplied by F.R. Whitmarsh of Grimsby from the original broadside as sold by the author.’ The original broadside is held in Grimsby Public Library.

The oral version was collected from a master mariner, Mr J. Pearson, of Filey in 1957 by N.A. Huddleston.

‘A ballad in memory of the fisherman from Hull and Grimsby who lost their lives in the gale of 8 and 9 February, 1889’ by W. Delf

1
Methinks I see some little crafts spreading their sails a-lee
As down the Humber they did glide bound to the northern sea;
Methinks I see on each small craft a crew with hearts so brave,
Going to earn their daily bread upon the restless wave.
2
Me thinks I see them as they left the land all far behind,
Casting the lead into the deep their fishing grounds to find;
Me thinks I see them on the deck working with a will,
To shoot their net into the deep either for good or ill.
3
Methinks I see them shoot their trawl upon the Thursday night,
And saw the watch upon the deck, and everything was right;
Me thinks I see them yet again when day light did appear,
All hands working with a will getting off their gear.
4
Methinks I see the net on board and fish so fresh and gay,
And all were engaging in clearing them away;
Methinks I see them put away into the ice below,
and then the sea began to rise, and the wind did stronger blow.
5
Methinks I heard the skipper say, “My lads, we'll shorten sail,
As the sky to all appearance looks like an approaching gale.”
Me thinks I see them yet again, and all on board was right,
With sails close reef’d, the deck cleared up, and sidelights burning bright.
6
Methinks I see them yet again, the midnight hour was passed,
Their little craft was battling there with fiery blast;
Methinks I heard the skipper say, “cheer up my lads, be brave.
We’ll trust in Him who rules the deep, in Him who alone can save.”
7
Methinks I read the thoughts of them who now are called away;
They were thinking of their loved ones dear may miles away;
Thinking of wife and children dear, and aged parents too,
Who no more will see them here again in this world below.
8
Great God, thou sees each sorrowing heart, the widow in distress,
Thou knows the little children dear, who now are fatherless;
Comfort and cheer them here below, and lead them by thy hand,
And at last may they meet with their loved ones dear in the promised land.

The poem has been published in ‘The Oxford Book of Local Verses’. The original broadside is in the Grimsby Public Library.