Jump to content

Drifter (fishing boat)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Khazar2 (talk | contribs) at 10:58, 5 February 2013 (clean up, replaced: mid 1960s → mid-1960s (2) using AWB (8564)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Lydia Eva is the last surviving steam drifter of the herring fishing fleet based in Great Yarmouth

A drifter is a type of fishing boat. They were designed to catch herrings in a long drift net. Herring fishing using drifters has a long history in the Netherlands and in many British fishing ports, particularly in East Scottish ports.

Until the mid-1960s fishing fleets in the North Sea comprised drifters and trawlers, with the drifters primarily targeting herring while the trawlers caught cod, plaice, skate and haddock, etc. By the mid-1960s the catches were greatly diminishing, particularly the herring. Consequently the drifter fleet disappeared and many of the trawlers were adapted to work as service ships for the newly created North Sea oil rigs.

Some history of drifters is covered in Scottish east coast fishery.

Drifters preserved as museum ships include Lydia Eva, a steam drifter of the herring fishing fleet based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk,[1] and Reaper, a restored Scottish Fifie herring drifter at the Scottish Fisheries Museum.[2]

See also

References