Brezk-íslenzk viðskipti - 01.05.1947, Page 27

BRETLAND OG [SLAND, Maí, 1947
BRITAIN’S SCHOOL
for
FISHERMEN
By
CAPT. RAYMOND O’SHEA
(Public Relations Officer — British
Trawlers' Federation)
@ The new trawler, “ INGOLFUR ARNARSON,”
which is the first of thirty-two trawlers built in Britain
for lceland, has just made her first successful trip to
the fishing banks and from now on will be a regular
visitor to Grimsby. Note Radar apparatus in front of
the funnel.
LIKE almost every other British
industry, trawling is seriously
handicapped by shortage of man-
power. The majority of vessels have
returned to their ports after war-
time duties, and new ones are
gradually emerging from the slipways
but they are held up by lack of crews.
In Grimsby alone, this premier deep-
sea port has developed a crisis by
the shortage of qualifled hands to
keep its fleet constantly operative,
and at the present time it is estimated
that fully 400 hands are required to
make up full crews.
To combat this obstacle to the
development of British fisheries,
there is now in operation a Govern-
ment-assisted scheme to train ex-
Service candidates in the essential
branches of sea service. The aim of
this scheme, which is open to any
able-bodied man under 35 and not
liable for military service, is to make
trainees fully qualified to sign on
trawlers as deck hands after only
one month’s schooling in theory and
eight weeks at sea.
The Fishermen’s Training Scheme
at the Grimsby Nautical School,
which is the only Government-
sponsored one in the British Empire,
includes free tuition in navigation,
trawl net making and mending, com-
pass reading, steering, first-aid and
general nautical duties.
On leaving the School, trainees
who fish in sub-Arctic areas can earn
up to Kr. 530 a week, and in less than
four years, with a continuation of
schooling, to pass the Board of Trade
examinations, they have the prospect
of becoming skippers, with earnings
up to Kr. 265,000 a year, with a
reasonable minimum of about Kr.
75,000 for North Sea trawling.
The school is by no means short of
students, having regard to the limited
capacity of its present buildings, but
it is not likely that it can meet the
industry’s immediate demands for
quite a considerable period.
The main reason for the existing
crew shortage is the war, for men
who have returned from service have
left the sea in large numbers. Some
are reluctant to return to trawling
and the arduous work and long hours
it entails, and have taken up shore
jobs. Quite a number have taken
to “ lumping,” or the unloading of
fish from the trawlers, in order to
be at home each day, and not a few
have used their war gratuities to go
into small fishmongering businesses.
The Principal of the Nautical
School, Captain F. E. Townend, who
has trained crews since the inception
of the school in 1907, has plans for a
Fisherman’s University on the lines
of the Nautical School at Reyk-
javik, lceland. It would cost about
Kr. 2,600,000 and have hostel accom-
modation for 100 students. There
would be a marine biology depart-
ment and one for quick-freezing and
by-products.
The Fishermen’s Training Scheme
was first started by the British
Trawler’s Federation, but in Feb-
ruary of this year it was taken over
by the Ministry of Labour and is now
run by the Director of Education in
Grimsby in conjunction with the
Nautical School. Ex-Servicemen re-
ceive personal and family allowances
from the Government, but others,
who are not eligible for assistance
under the Government’s Vocational
Training Scheme, are financed by the
trawler owners.
The Training Scheme may prove
to be the salvation of Britain’s
trawling industry and, if the number
of candidates warrants it, there is a
possibility that official fishermen’s
schools may be established in each
port.
TRAWLER NEWS
The last of five trawlers which have
been converted to oil-burners by the
lago Steam Trawler Company, the
“ Red Gauntlet,” has just left Fleet-
wood for the lcelandic fishing
grounds. It is estimated that the
conversion of these trawlers will
save 15,000 tons of coal a year,
although they will cost 20 per cent.
more to run than coal vessels.
Crew’s quarters are cleaner and
more spacious, however, and there
are specially-designed cork-insulated
fish storage tanks, lined with alumin-
ium, to facilitate cleaning.
A trawler which cost £25,000 to
£30,000 in 1939 could not be put to
sea today for less than £70,000.
Crews have increased in size by a
third; their wages by a half.
A trawler on the lceland run burns
ten tons of coal a day, at 51/6 a ton.
Fuel costs of oil-burning vessels have
gone up 30 per cent in 12 months.
Bait costs have risen by 250 per cent:
gear by nearly 400 per cent.
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