surpassed only by its Norfolk rival, Great Yarmouth, just five miles north.
The first East Anglian fishing boat to be steam powered was the 'Consolation', built in 1897; by 1914there were about 350 steamers in Lowestoft. Diesel engines were first fitted to Suffolk boats at the beginning of the 1930s.
Back in 1913, however - the year with the heaviest catches ever recorded - the vast majority of the 1700 or so fishing boats that collected in Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Southwold for the Autumn fishing were steam driven, accompanied by some scores of sailing drifters. ( Drifting is the technique of trailing nets close to the surface, as opposed to trawling the seabed.)
The skipper of a drifter might have started as a cook's boy, then risen through the ranks of deck hand, Third Hand and Mate before finally taking the exam to gain his Master's certificate.
The scenes of bustle in Lowestoft when the fishing fleet was in action were graphically recalled in the 1950s in a series of newspaer articles by H.H. Jay, now assembled in the book Fishy Tales .
The activity at sea was matched by the frantic work going on ashore as the fish were unloaded, gutted, packed in ice (or cured if destined to be kippers), sold and transported.
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