Memories of Hull Part 3 By Terry Hood

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

On 26th January 1955 the nation was stunned by the news of the loss of the Lorella and Roderigo with all 40 crewmen during severe weather off Iceland. This was due to black ice forming on the trawlers. As quick as the crew were chipping it off, it was forming again.

My cousin was on another trawler standing by listening to the radio operators on each trawler talking to each other and then he heard one of them say, 'Give our love to our wives, children and sweethearts. Cheerio. Gone and out.' He could not believe what he had heard and just broke down and cried.

On a lighter note, I had to go out in all weathers to do my job. When I climbed aboard the trawler I had to be careful I didn't slip on the deck and be aware of the baskets of fish being swung from fish hold to quayside. I could take any sort of fish home such as cod, haddock and plaice etc., provided I got a chit from my foreman to hand in to the dock police who were at the top of the subway near Lord Line. On one occasion I wrapped a cod in some sacking, tied it round my waist and took the chance in getting off the dock with it. It worked.

My father warned me about tricks that could be played on me by the men in the rigging shop when I first started my new job. One day my charge hand asked me to get him a capful of nail holes. He gave me his cap and I duly obliged.

I went to the carpenters and found the biggest nail I could find and hammered lots of holes in his cap. When I took it back to him he went berserk. Served him right, he didn't ask me to do anything like that again in a hurry. A trawlerman called George Allan worked on one of Lord Lines trawlers and was very superstitious of the colour green. He never allowed holly into the house.

Yet Lord Line's trawler hulls were coloured green. The contradiction is explained by a handicap which also prevented George getting his skippers ticket. He was colour blind.

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