Ray Morse
Ray belongs to: The Fishermen's Mission
Ray was born in Sunderland into a fishing family. He has fished since the age of 3. He worked from North Shields and Grimsby. Ray is now retired and continues to fish in his leisure time.
Ray was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 8 November 2005. The interview took place at North Shields Fishermen's Mission and lasted 54 minutes and 21 seconds.
Growing up in the fishing community
"Out here it was what you would call a bustling port"
Out here it was what you would call a bustling port. Something like say 200 trawlers plus other boats and then in the busy times, in the summer when the herring fleet was here there would be even more. So you can imagine it was just a hive of activity, this river, fishing wise. When I was just a young lad, ten or eleven when I used to go to sea with my father, he used to send me around the herring boats with a bucket to get some herring off them. And all the herring lads from Yarmouth and places like that all used to know me because I used to go about with, as you’ve seen on photographs, I was in my little skipper's uniform. I had a peaked hat and my little wellies and things like that. And they all knew me, and I used to get pots of cocoa and all sorts off them- it was great then! I had a great life- well I think it was because when I was a youngster, well, all I’ve known all my life from the age of three is fishing.
Ray has 17 memories in the memorynet:
Growing up in the fishing community
- The fishing community
- Predicting the weather
- Traditional navigation and fishing skills
- Being caught in a hurricane on the Dogger Bank
- Superstitions
- Burning the Witches
- A regular fishing trip
- An unforgetable trip
- Adjusting to life ashore
- The Fishermen's Mission
Hauling prawns- The Conduan
- Ray and his father
- In the wheelhouse of the Conduan
- Taking a break
- The Conduan being launched
Use this form to add your comment to the memorynet: