A drifter is a type of

fishing boat A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was ...

. They were designed to catch

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Ocean ...

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 The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

comprised drifters and

trawlers Trawler may refer to: Boats * Fishing trawler, used for commercial fishing * Naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second ...

, with the drifters primarily targeting

while the trawlers caught cod,

plaice Plaice is a common name for a group of flatfish that comprises four species: the European, American, Alaskan and scale-eye plaice. Commercially, the most important plaice is the European. The principal commercial flatfish in Europe, it is al ...

skate Skate or Skates may refer to: Fish * Skate (fish), several genera of fish belonging to the family Rajidae * Pygmy skates, several genera of fish belonging to the family Gurgesiellidae * Smooth skates or leg skates, several genera of fish belongi ...

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 rig {{about, , the mnemonic OIL RIG, Redox An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling. Kinds of oil rig include: * Drilling rig, an apparatus for on-land oil drilling * Drillship, a floating apparatus for offshore oil drilling ...

s. Some history of drifters is covered in

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 ...

. Drifters preserved as

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

s include ''Lydia Eva'', a steam drifter of the herring fishing fleet based in

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, and ''Reaper'', a restored Scottish

Fifie The Fifie is a design of sailing boat developed on the east coast of Scotland. It was a traditional fishing boat used by Scottish fishermen from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. These boats were mainly used to fish for herring usi ...

herring drifter at the Scottish Fisheries Museum.National Register of Historic Vessels

Naval drifter A naval drifter is a boat built along the lines of a commercial fishing drifter but fitted out for naval purposes. The use of naval drifters is paralleled by the use of naval trawlers. Fishing trawlers were designed to tow heavy trawls, so they ...

s were boats built in the same way used by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

primarily to maintain and patrol anti-submarine nets. They were either purpose-built for naval use or requisitioned from private owners.

Image gallery

File:Rigging2.png, Norse

drifter, c 1200 AD Image:Groenewegen.D3.Buis.jpg, Dutch

Herring Buss A herring buss ( nl, Haringbuis) was a type of seagoing fishing vessel, mostly used by Dutch and Flemish herring fishermen in the 15th through early 19th centuries. The buss ship type has a long history. It was already known around the time of th ...

drifter taking aboard its drift net, c. 1600 Image:Reaper in sail.jpg, The ''Reaper'', a restored

fifie The Fifie is a design of sailing boat developed on the east coast of Scotland. It was a traditional fishing boat used by Scottish fishermen from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. These boats were mainly used to fish for herring usi ...

herring drifter, was originally built c. 1902 File:Leaving Port Seton - geograph.org.uk - 830836.jpg, The ''Reaper'' leaving Port Seton. Fifies like this were used for fishing off the coast of Scotland from the 1850s until well into the 20th century.

References

External links

*http://www.lydiaeva.org.uk/ {{fisheries and fishing Fishing in Scotland Types of fishing vessels Nautical terminology

Image gallery

See also

References

External links