A well smack was a type of traditional fishing boat in use in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and then the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

between the late 18th century and around 1920. It had a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

amidships. The well was filled with circulated external water, which kept fish alive until delivered to land and sold. It was a modified form of a fishing smack.

History

Between roughly 1775 and 1875, "well smack" referred to a 50-foot

gaff Gaff may refer to: Ankle-worn devices * Spurs in variations of cockfighting * Climbing spikes used to ascend wood poles, such as utility poles Arts and entertainment * A character in the ''Blade Runner'' film franchise * Penny gaff, a 19th- ...

cutter used in long-lining for

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

, ling,

turbot The turbot ( ) ''Scophthalmus maximus'' is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a ...

, and other bottom-living sea fish. These vessels were also known as cod boats. From roughly 1875 to 1920, they were extended to make 80-foot gaff

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch f ...

es, sometimes by the cut-and-shut procedure. Some were built as new 80-foot welled smacks; some were turned into dry ships for use with ice.

Structure and usage

These smacks were heavy-hulled with a draught of two

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...

s. They were buoyant fore and aft, with the well contained amidships. Augur holes were drilled in the sides of the hull so that water could flow freely for re-oxygenation. Fish placed in the well could then be carried upriver to market (from 1750 especially Billingsgate,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

; from 1900 the

Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

) in fresh condition. The

swim bladder The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ (anatomy), organ in bony fish that functions to modulate buoyancy, and thus allowing the fish to stay at desired water depth without having to maintain lift ...

s of the fish had to be pierced to prevent them from floating. Turbot and other flatfish were suspended on thin rope to prevent them from clogging the augur holes. Crews considered these ships safe and stable, according to Faroes crewmen who remembered sailing in them before 1920. By about 1854, the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

was too polluted for use of welled smacks, and fishermen had to leave fish in floating cod boxes in the Thames estuary near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

. Many fishermen moved out of Thames fishing ports such as Barking, and went to the east coast, especially to

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...

and

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

. Some cod boats, including some welled smacks, did continue to fish out of Barking until around 1900. However most continued to carry the

Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Se ...

port-registration LO. Until the 1870s, these smacks travelled from London to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in summer, and returned via North Sea ports, including Holland. From the 1870s, those converted to dry ketches were used in fleeting in the North Sea, especially in the Silver Pits. From 1900 to 1920, the last welled smacks were sold to the Faroe Islands. The last welled smacks sank in the

in about 1920.

Marine archaeology and research

There is no way today of seeing or touching a UK welled smack, apart from the drawings, and a fuzzy, distant photo or two, in Edgar J. March's 1950 book. There is no known film, photo of the deck, marine wreck site, or souvenir. A welled smack should be easily identifiable at a wreck site from the unusually heavy hull-construction around the well. In the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

there may be one copy of a Faroese film of sou-westered fishermen on the rolling deck of a welled smack, pricking swim-bladders and placing the fish in the well—but it is not available to researchers for confirmation. In

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

, however, the '' Emma C. Berry'' survives.

References

Bibliography

* Dempster, Henry. ''The Fisheries and Fishmarkets of Great Britain'', Edinburgh (1874) * March, Edgar J. ''Sailing Trawlers'' (1950) * March, Edgar J. ''Sailing Trawlers: The Story of Deep-Sea Fishing With Long Line and Trawl'', (David & Charles, 1970)

External links

''Following the fish to Grimsby''
by Margaret Gerrish, pdf file
''Welled Fishing Ketches''
by Bingatti, ''

The Sydney Mail ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by J ...

'', 14 November 1885
''Reforms and improvements suggested for the fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland''
by J. Lawrence-Hamilton (circa 1890), pdf file
''Memoir descriptive and explanatory''
by John Purdy (London, Richard Holmes Laurie, 1820)
''Emma C. Berry'' (1866), New England well smack

Image links

Grimsby well smack model

''Emma C. Berry'' (1866), New England well smack

as measured, drawn and described by Edgar J. March in ''Sailing Trawlers'' (1950)
Model of well smack ''Glide''
{{Sailing Vessels and Rigs, state=collapsed Traditional sailboats Types of fishing vessels History of fishing