The Doric Columns
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The Doric Columns |
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Fittie Fowk
18th Century Fittie The furniture in every way corresponding. Two clumsy black bedsteads were placed under the 2 small windows, of which there was 1 on each side of the door; and a small table, 2 or 3 chairs, and some low seats or sunkies, with the requisites of the fishing occupation, viz., lines, creels, sculls, murlans, etc., formed all the rest of the visible movables. There was no 'press' (cupboard) or keeping-place whatever, except a chest or locker in which the Sunday clothes and any stores were kept, and the saut-backet suspended in the chimney.  The
Fishermen
were in general hardy and industrious, but ignorant in an incredible degree on
all subjects unconnected with their own business. Few of them could read,
and none of the grown up people could write. The elderly men wore
broad bonnets,
blue jackets,
and
canvas kilts
or
short trousers.
The younger men were rather good-looking, smarter in their dress, and more
good-humoured; but going to sea in the
night,
and taking their repose by day, was not favourable for the development of the
social faculties,
and there was scarcely an instance of
intellectual talent
or a tendency to any
art or science
among them. They were indeed fond of music, in as far as having a fiddle at
their merry meetings, and a few of the lads could sing but a little, but their
collection of songs was not extensive.
A fisherman, at work ‘redding’ or preparing, the fishing line. This lengthy and painstaking job involved cleaning 100s of hooks on the line and then baiting them with mussels or lugworms. Here lines were baited in preparation for line fishing by attaching lugworm or mussels to the “huiks” (hooks) and was an everyday sight. First they a hook to the “want”. A scoop at his side would contain marram grass which was used to layer over the line after baiting to stop it snagging. The Fishing Industry is generally viewed as a solely male occupation; however women have always played a central role in Scotland's fishing communities. It was unusual for a fisherman to take a wife from a farming or non-fishing background since such women would have none of the necessary skills nor knowledge to support her spouse's work. Fisher women were often regarded as having equal status to their men and in many households they were the ruling partners. More often than not the family's economy would be controlled and directed by the women, with most of them known by their maiden names.
Clothes handed down
within a family were always referred to as Cast-affs There was still another class, who, though fewer in number, formed rather an interesting part of the society. In several of the families there was, in addition to the husband, wife, and children, an old man or woman, known by the appellation of Lucky-daddy or Lucky-minnie - the Grandfather or Grandmother of the family. These, when unable to work for themselves, went to live in the houses of their sons or daughters, and seemed to be kindly treated by them. Some of the men were very old, born in a former century, and appeared to take little interest in what was passing, sitting in a chair in the sun outside the door, or led about by 1 of the children. The Grandmother had her place by the fire, and assisted in many of the lighter domestic labours. Her dress was somewhat peculiar; she always wore a blue cloth hood or "trotcosie," and a man's coat over the rest of her attire, with a large pouch or pocket by her side. These old women were often skilled in the medical arts, and their advice sought in preference to Doctors; but some individuals of them were also dreaded as being an "unlucky foot," and possessing other powers which made it dangerous to offend them. Trading Community From the circumstance of most of these Fishers some being employed as Pilots, and from their immediate association with the Harbour, and constant commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of Aberdeen, there is in them a greater degree of Civilization than is observable in most of the other Fishing communities of the North-east. At the same time, their joint employment as both fishermen and pilots is by no means favourable to their religious, moral, and domestic habits.
A powered Coble crosses the Dee Estuary near the Torry ShoreThe Fisher Fowk are a hard-working people and extremely honest, and they deem it the greatest possible reproach to cast a doubt on their integrity, which they are the more easily enabled to maintain as unimpeachable, because all their bargains and transactions are for ready money.
They seldom marry with persons not of their own community, except in a few instances where the daughters of fishers have married with seamen and ship-carpenters. This may arise not so much from any dislike to form connections out of their own craft, as from the fact that, on the one hand, a fisherman would find a woman of any other class wholly incapable of giving him any assistance in this occupation, and unable to perform the hard work devolving on the fisherwomen; and, on the other hand, a fisher-woman, from the irregularity of her occupation, and want of leisure and opportunity to attend to her daughters, unless when they follow her in her fishing employments, cannot educate them so as to be useful wives to persons of any other class.
"Lassie, ye dinna ken fit it is to be livin'. When I wis your age I had tae start fae Finnan, wi' a bir'n that took twa tae lift on my back, at 3 o'clock on winter mornin's, wi' the blin' drift i' my face, an' tramp in tae Aberdeen by the Brig o' Dee Road, which wisna sae steep nor slippy as the Suspension Bridge Road; then a' foreneen it i' the Market; syne we filled oor creels wi' groceries or mussels, an' startit hame in the aifterneen, and aye, sirs, it wis a stiff road hame. On the frosty nichts we ees'd tae pick the middle o' the road, where the horse feet had chippit the ice, but fin' the hill wis sae slippy we had tae tak tae the ditches, an mony a nicht the tangles on oor frozen petticoats wad hae oor legs cut an' bleedin' an' frozen again, afore we wisn hame. Then there wis the fish to carry up the lang steep Finnan braes, the mussels tae shell, an' the lines to bait, the fish to clean an' smoke, syne the hoose tae tidy up, an' the bairns tae look aifter, an' awa tae Aberdeen again. Aye lassie! lassie! mony a week oor een never steekit on a pillow; an' in the simmer time, besides the ither wark, awa tae the moss, 3 weary miles, tae cast peats, an' when they were dry an' ready, to carry them hame again, Lassie, dinna complain o' your wee bit wark bein' a fash."
Occasionally considerable quantities of shrimps are caught in pools left by the tide on the sands; and the fishermen who reside in Fittie use as bait great quantities of sand-eels, which they collect by turning over the sand after the tide has receded.
Fishing Villages of the North-east A free school was established some years ago by Mr John Davidson, goldsmith, exclusively for the white-fishers, and it has been the means of doing a great deal of good among them. It is taught on the plan of the 'sessional' school, and its effects are manifest in the decided and progressive improvement of the manners and habits of the fishers. The children who attend the school re-act on their parents, and, as it were, shame them out of their indifference to useful knowledge and habits. The fishers are, generally speaking, a long-lived people and very healthy, and, notwithstanding the dangerous nature of their occupation, there are few accidents of serious consequence among them.
Seaward Side of North Square with intrusive and incongruous TV Aerials. Mony's the time I walked roon the seaward back lane of these cottages. Note the wee loons heid defying the threatening Sea from the open skylight and the extended height of the soil pipe vents.Like most other fishermen, they have a good many superstitious ideas and practices, and they have implicit faith in many traditions, and in various omens. Thus they reckon it very offensive for anyone to count a boat's crew, or a Company of them returning from Market, and it is not less so to tell how many fish they have caught. If a fisher be turned back when he is going out to fish, he will on no account go out that day, and is very much provoked. Often, too, things, which any one but they would esteem mere trifles, cannot be spoken of without interfering with some omen, whose influence they would hold it sinful to doubt. It is at the same time to be noticed, that the Fishers of Fittie have less superstitions than those that live in the fishing-villages along the coast, both to the north and south, where they live almost entirely secluded from regular social intercourse with the inland agricultural population.
Clothes and Customs When i was seen wearing a dirty shirt my mother would say - tak at aff - it's Barkit The fisherwomen were easily recognised in their distinctive striped skirts, dark capes and headscarves, wearing white stockings and shoes like slippers – and displaying the creels of their trade. In the north-east the fishwives from different villages had distinctive patterns for their plaids : red and black dice in Inverallochy and Cairnbulg, blue and black in St. Combs, black and white in Broadsea, grey and white in Pitulie and natural brown in Rosehearty. The woman usually worked in groups of 5 or 6 to buy a box of fish at the Quay and then divide it amongst themselves. Then each women with her chosen share would load her creel and smaller basket called a scull, weighing a total of 1 cwt (50 kg) of wet fish, on her back – the weight taken on the chest or forehead with a headband. |
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The unavoidable want of
regularity in their hours, the general practice of giving allowances in drink
for any particular service, and their custom of dividing the
