YORKSHIRE'S CLOSE TIES WITH SEA

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5311, 25 January 1947, Page 2

YORKSHIRE'S CLOSE TIES WITH SEA

1200 YEARSi FISHING CAPTAIN COOK'S STATUE LIEiS IN TOWN HALL CEDLAR. I have been spending- a turn-of-the-year holiday on the east eoast of Britain's northern county of Yorkshire, writes Phyllis Bentley from Lofldon. From Flamihorough Head northward this is a coast of cliffs and bays, whence Yorkshiremen h^ve fished the 'North Sea, both coastwise .and on the deep, for at least 1200 years. The towns have blue waves on their coats-of-arms; the churches are full of tahlets in memorial of those "lost at sea" down the eenturies; the gardens banbour old ship figureheads with streaming hair. and ample bosoms — startling, it is said, one inland visitor, arriving in the twilight, to the exclamation: "Is this the landlady?" The hoys "E^iock albotiit" in th fathers' boats from the age of six, . and 'Often own their own fleet of lobster pots 'by the time they leave school — they make the pots themselves and shoot and gather them from their fathers' cohles. Guernseys and seaboots are still the natural wear — -the Town Clerk dons them andi 'goes fishing on his Boxing Day holiday. This is the coast whence Captain Cook set out on the voyages which led to the discoyery of Australia and ; New Zealand. He was born in a village a few miles inlandy amid the purple heather moors; began seafaring in the litle fishing village of Staithes and was later .apprenticed to Whitby shipowners. His famoius exploring ships, Endeavour and Resolution, were built ! in Whitby yards. His statue, in bronze, showing Him | in proper iSth century garb, kneebreeches and wig, with a pair of cal- ! lipers in his hand, feet astride as 1 though on deck in _a gale, stands on j the Whitby cliffs, gazing across the 1 sea southwards, towards the lands he | found. Or rather, his statue used to j so stand; at present he lies on his 1 back in straw in a Town Hall cellar. ! So much gunfire raged round his head | during. World War II that he had to f be taken down for safety; his pedes- j tal, with its carved flags, was so much ' damaged that he cannot resume his j station till a new one is prepared, { and living people must be hoiused be- ! fore statues, so m'aterials andi labour j are not yet available. He shares his exile, and its cause, ! with the seagulls. The wartime anti-. ! aircra,ft guns made so much noise over j the cliffs that ,many of the seagulls J left them and nested on town roofs— i some swooped down and folded their j wings over the Town Hall as J stood ; there. Had a Tough Time. • This coast had a tough time during i the war. All the able-bodied fishermen i were in Britain's Royal Naval Reserve j and were called up immediately, while j the Ifisher lads joined the Navy on j reaching conscription age.TVIany manned minesweepers, othefs, of course, i were on bigger ships. One of the few ! Englishmen to receive a Russian Red | Star decoration came from this coast; I during a heavily ibombed • convoy to ( Russia, the only one of his gun-crew ; left .unwounded, he brought down two I enemy aircraft single-handed. Meanwhile, the very old and the ; very young manned the fishing boats ; at home, bombed and machine-gunned I and in danger of floating mines, and ! hampered by the severe blackout, with ) the -country clamouring for fish. An elderly retired solicitor, intend- , ing to recuperate for a few weeks in i Scarborough after being bombedi out j of London, found himself acting as j half the crew of a fishing coble for i three years. His hands hardened after ' a time, he told me mildly. Now the east coast seamen are de- j mobilised they are all returning to their hereditary callings: Merchant Navy or fishing. Modern conditions tendi to gather fishermen into fleets at the larger ports, so most make their headcpuarters at Hull or Grimsby, further south, but some remain to fish the North Yorkshire coast, and the herring fleets use the Yorkshire harbours in summer.

Britain's Merchant Navy has reached an important phase in its lopg and honourable career. Far-reaching proposals 'have been submitted by the rele- [ vant trade unions for consideration j by the National Marltime Board and i the 'Central Industrial Council of shipowners, offilcers and men. The war casualties in the 'Merchant Navy were heavy, and a number of offilcers and men have left the service to resume civilian pursuits, since the war ended';* thius the effective personnel has for the moment decreased.' Training Golleges Full Fortunately for Britain's export trade, to. which the, Merchant. Navy is,of vital consequence, the training colleges for new recruits are full — indeed, there are long waiting lists. But it is agreed that this traditional enthusiasm must neither be exploited nor relied upon to overweight disadvantageOus living conditions; wotfk aird pay must he improved, so that the merchant seamen. shall enjoy at least as good a life as the landilubber's. Wartime regulations ended in the first week of 1947, so the opportunity for remodelling is present. The Government meanwhile is continuing the. Merchant Navy Reserve Pool for a while, in the . expectation that the Maritime Board will work out a scheme to^replace it. , The ohject of the reserve pool, which. was - begun. in the -spring of 1941, is -to "decasualise" sea employment. W]hen a seamaxi is paid off from a ship he is relegated to the pool and draws .weekly pool pay, Then when a ship needs men for . deck or enginerpom, the owners apply to the pool, which sends eligihle men to the ship for an interview. The pool tbus takes the place of the. labour exchange for the .seaman, and no seaman -is eyer without pay. Walked 40 Miles toi ga to Sea « - y , - I rememher. in .late 1941 — a .very dangerous time for geafarers— watch-

t I ng a branch of this pool at work in he Yorkshire port of Hull. Among che ordinary seamen and able seamen and faremen signing on or drawing pay I saw several boys, much too young, I thought, to he shipped. The officer in charge took the same view. "Been to sea befdre? INio? Y^u boys, we've too many of you," he saidt "Come bacik when ^o'u're a couple of years older, .sonny." He turned to me. "Thfs" lad's walkedi 40 miles from his home to go to sea. Can't see what they sbe in it myself," he growled, his blue . eyes twinkling. But as long as the island of Britain remains "set in the silyer sea," hef lads will probably continue to want to go down to the sea in ships, .for one reason or another. Incidentally, one of the Scarborough Tunny-fishing Cluh's cups was won last year by a woman — the eup was limited .by its donor's conditions to naval personnel, but as the young, lady was an officer in the Woman's Royal Naval Service, she was eligible! The east coast of " Yorkshire, by the way, has produced two fine modiern novelists:f Storm Jameson, a descendant toi Wfiithy sea-captains, whose early trilogy, "The Triumph of .Time," has.- a ship-huilding heroine; and Leo. Walmsley, whose novel of Yorkshire fishermen, "Three Fevers," has been filmed under the title of "Tum of the Tide."