Winds of bitterness blow through trawler towns

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 9

Winds of bitterness blow through trawler towns

(By

DAVID SMITH,

NZPA-Reuter correspondent) Grimsby Dejected British trawlermen have come home with what they fear will be their last catches of cod from the Icelandic waters Britain has fished for more than 300 years. Barred from the fish havens that have given them their livelihood, they have returned to the cold comfort of the first snow of winter and the prospect of an immediate place in the growing ranks of the unemployed. Two trawlers, among the, last to leave before an Icelandic Government deadline expired on Wednesday of last week, have docked in the north-eastern port of Grimsby, their nets bulging with cod worth more than ever before. But the men's big paypackets could be their last for a long time. Union officials and businessmen have predicted that about 10,000 workers — on the boats, in the frozen food factories, at the traditional fish-and-chip shops — may soon be out of work unless the trawlers are allowed back into Icelandic waters.

If Iceland and Britain can- ) !not reach a new agreement, l no more British trawlers will !be permitted within 200 ■ nautical miles of Icelandic i shores. The fishermen were bitter > over Britain’s decision to give ■ way to pressure from Reyk- ) javik after three so-called “cod wars” in the last 18 ! years. For them, the decision - to withdraw from those 1 lucrative waters was a be- ■ trayal and a surrender. : “If we had a government ! with some backbone, this > would never have happened,” said a deckhand, Dave Mc- ’ Kenzie, after leaving the ■ trawler Ross Khartoum. “The ' men we elect to protect our • interests have sold us out — •Ito a small country with no ■ forces to back up their 1 demands. “Am I bitter? I'm bloody 1 mad about it.” Mr McKenzie, aged 38, has . been a trawlerman for 22 t years. i His captain, 47-year-old 1 Frank Gray, sat gloomily in I his cabin as the crew left to see their families for the first > time in three weeks. He took; : down the family pictures! from the cabin walls, I

i “I just don’t know if I'll | be coming back,” he said. ("Normally we’d have four 'days off and then go out (again — but where can I distant-sea trawlermen like jus go now?” His crew still fished from their rusty, 600-tonne trawler (five minutes before Wednesday’s deadline. “We couldn't resist it.” Gray said. “I’ve never seen the boys work so hard. We were escorted out by a patrol boat, and the lads had a few- dirty words for the Icelanders.” Dirty words about Icelanders are in fashion in Grimsby. The walls of the dock where the Ross Khartoum berthed carried slogans saying: “Kill the Icelanders” and “Stay out, foreigners.” The Icelandic trawler Ogri has just hurt Grimsby’s pride by coming in and winning a record price of £99,000 for its cod catch. The locals replied by printing obscenities on the Ogri’s bows and hull, and warned its crew not to come back. “Just let them show their faces here again,” said an 18-year-old deckhand, Tom Boothrovd, as his trawler Huddersfield Town returned.

“It would be a pleasure for most of us to thump a few Icelanders.’’ In a strange twist, the fishermen are represented in Parliament .by the man who negotiated the agreement with Iceland, the Foreign Secretary (Mr Anthony Crosland). Mr Crosland has said the Government does not want any fresh confrontation with Iceland over fishing rights. Instead, he is pinning his constituents’ hopes on new negotiations this month between Common Market countries and Reykjavik while pressing ahead with plans to declare a 200-mile British fishing zone from the beginning of next year. But the fishermen in Grimsby and their employers were not optimistic about further talks with Iceland. “The Government has shown itself to be spineless with Iceland once before, so we cannot hold out much hope.” a spokesman for the Trawler-owners Federation said. He forecast that empty trawlers, now gathering rust at the wharves of Grimsby, might soon be queuing up at the breakers' yards.