"The Birth Of Scotland"

I love these little fishy stories from the little village in Scotland where I lived for 4 years.. I miss it terribly at times,the peace,the stormy seas the snow and the ever changing horizon :-)

During the late 1940s and early 1950s upwards of 30 boats could be seen fishing in the Firth. These boats were known as baldies and fished from ports along the coast. Burghead, Lossie, Buckie, Whitehills and Macduff all had their own fishing fleets and fish markets.

The Beryl was a Whitehills  boat and usually landed her catch there. One day the Beryl caught a huge bag of cod and ling and could not haul the net onboard. The skipper decided to tow the catch to the nearest port which was Portknockie. All went well until he approached the harbour entrance. The net caught on the buss lying off the breakwater and was torn open and hundreds of fish surfaced.

Fish were everywhere and Knocker loons were soon on the scene. “We were cleekin  fish from the steps and rippin them from the quays.” Another bonanza of fish was found as the tide ebbed; dozens were trapped in Linn links pool. We did not have fridges so surplus fish were sold to Zander, the Chippie.

Editor: an ex-fisherman from Portsoy has told me that a similar huge catch was towed into Cullen harbour by the Macduff registered “Tudor Queen” (skipper, Dennis Wilson) on the same day.

Here is the view from my old Cottage on the Cliffs of the Moray Firth :-)