This is a page from a book of photographs of Caithness from 1925. It shows two photographs. The first one is a close up of an English Steam Drifter with the registration 'LT 64,' this means that the boat was registered in Lowestoft in East Anglia. Upon investigation this drifter was registered as 'LOYAL FRIEND' and sunk six years later in 1931 at Aberdeen's north pier.
The second photograph is of several of the steam drifters that were used in the herring industry returning to the harbour in Wick.
This is a page from a book of photographs of Caithness from 1925. It shows two photographs. The first one is a close up of an English Steam Drifter with the registration 'LT 64,' this means that the boat was registered in Lowestoft in East Anglia. Upon investigation this drifter was registered as 'LOYAL FRIEND' and sunk six years later in 1931 at Aberdeen's north pier. <br /> <br /> The second photograph is of several of the steam drifters that were used in the herring industry returning to the harbour in Wick.<br /> <br /> Herring was a delicacy on the Continent and was caught relatively easily off the Coast of Scotland - off the East Coast during winter and spring, off the North Coast of Scotland and Shetland during the summer months and, in the autumn, off the Coast of East Anglia. At this time, there were as many as 30,000 vessels involved in herring fishing the East Coast, not to mention others in the Irish Sea. As the century progressed, the numbers continued to grow until the Scottish fishing industry became the largest in Europe. <br /> <br /> Because herring was a fatty fish, it had to be cured as quickly as possible to prevent it rotting. At the peak of the Herring Boom in 1907, 2,500,000 barrels of fish (250,000 tons) were cured and exported, the main markets being Germany, Eastern Europe and Russia. In 1913 there were over 10,000 boats involved in the Scottish Herring Industry. <br /> <br /> A Royal Burgh from 1589, the town of Wick has even more ancient origins, as shown by its name which comes from the Norse 'Vic', the word for bay. It lies on the north east coast of Scotland 19 miles south of John O'Groats.