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The Fishing News, 24 October 1931 |
Research Dates
Birth Certificate
Marriage Certificate
Death Certificate
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The item below was given to me by Neil and Christine Peek, it is an article
from The Fishing News, dated the 24th October 1931. Due to being taken from a
scan, some parts of it are unreadable. Those parts are noted between square
brackets.
JACK PEEK RETIRES
SUCCESSFUL ABERDEEN SKIPPER HAULS DOWN HIS FLAG
VIEWS ON TODAY
A full half century ago, a hefty Lowestoft youngster, 12 years of age, embarked
upon a sea-going career as cabin boy. The sea was in his blood as he sprang from
a family which had always paid liberal toll to its exacting requirements. Today,
still hale and hearty, he has hauled down his flag "to give the youngsters a
chance" he says. Jack Peek's record - 40 years of it as skipper - has been an
unqualified success and he may rest contentedly on his laurels. Like Wicks
(alias Kirkup or Treat), Peek must have been what Stevenson calls a handler of
men, for at the age of 23 he had graduated from cabin boy to skipper. Board of
Trade tickets were possibly not so exacting then as now, but whatever the
requirements the youngster fulfilled them and for a couple of years was happily
employed as master of a sailing smack. It was arduous work, and the young
skipper put his heart and soul into it. His first trip is worth remembering. He
sailed from Lowestoft one fine morning, for new grounds, and fetched up, some
300 miles away, off Lunday Islands. In his first [unreadable] one fish, a skate.
Really it should have been preserved, but actually the cook laid sacrilegious
hands upon it and made a fair meal for the crew of youngsters who manned the
smack for the skipper was the veteran of the lot - five men and a boy! Possibly
the skate livened matters up for eleven days from the kick-off the vessel nosed
into Plymouth with a fair showing, and made a heartening price.
Jack Peek had but two years of smack skippering before accident set him on the
road to success. He was busily fishing off the Norfolk coast one dismal morning
when his smack was hailed by the British Empire, a big ship out from Hartlepool
whose master had lost his bearings in a thick fog. The sun had been invisible
for a couple of days, explained the captain, as Peek scrambled aboard and "could
the skipper tell him his position." The skipper could, and did. In the
interchange of chat which followed the merchantman, a Scotsman named MacKay,
with a liberality of heart universally dissociated with the city from which he
hailed, told the young fisherman of the coming port of Aberdeen and strongly
urged him to "try his luck." Jack took the advice and never regretted it.
These were the paddleboat days - the days when steam trawlermen were hooted when
they came up the waterway by irate yawlsmen who foresaw a new era likely to
revolutionise fishing practice, and to compete - as effectively as "unfairly" -
with their own activities. Peek shipped, first of all, as second fisherman in
the Strathdee, one of the three vessels in which the now famous Strath line
originated, and the first screw trawling fleet at Aberdeen under the control of
the late Sir John Brown. From second fisherman he progressed to mate of the Port
Glasgow built trawler Alde, one of the six vessels constructed on the Clyde for
a company managed by Mr (now Sir William) Meff. At that time the incoming Lord
Provost's father ran a fish shop round about the foot of Market I Street and no
one then foresaw the eminence to which the son, and many of his colleagues, were
to spring. It was a natural transference from mate to skipper, so we next find
Jack as Master of the Sea Eagle, built in Duthie's yard and run from Jamiesons
office. The Loch line next claimed his attention, and for three years he
skippered several vessels for the eminent firm now known as A and T Smith, and
managed locally by Mr H A Holmes. A disagreement - one of the kind skippers are
won't to have - sent him to the Strath company and there he remained. The
Strathmore, the Strahatlen, the Strathmartin, practically all the big fleet of
the Aberdeen Steam Trawling and Fishing Co. Ltd., came under his command at one
time or other until, finally, he stepped ashore from the Strathblair and bade
farewell to the sea. As commodore of the Strath line he had followed such
notable men as Wetherly Bill Coates, and John Nutten, and he had added lustre to
a celebrated ancestry.
One of the most successful skippers who ever sailed from the port, his most
valuable catch was secured off Iceland during the war period. He was out for
from twelve to fourteen days and the trip panned out at a few pounds short of
£3,000. During the last three years of his career, it is interesting to recall,
his yearly average was over £11,000.
The views regarding modern methods of [unreadable] successful and experienced
skipper are bound to prove interesting at a time when North Sea depletion is
being vigorously debated. Professor Garstang tells us that despite intensive
fishing the North Sea grounds are improving every year. The war, he says,
enabled a natural experiment to be made in regard to to the theory that there
was a depletion taking place as a result of over-fishing. For several years
during that period, of course, fishing was reduced to small-scale inshore
efforts. Instead, however, of the plaice (in particular) being found to be
larger and more abundant after their long respite as was expected to be the
case, statistics showed that this expectation was not realised. More large
plaice were certainly found, but these were found close inshore, where such
fishing as had been possible during the war had been engaged in.
Jack peek refuses to stand for that [unreadable] he heartily subscribed to , the
Professor's opinion that a wastage of the fish supply is caused by the
destruction of under-sized fish in trawling. Captain Peek was one of the last of
present-day skippers to introduce the new type of gear. He could catch plenty
without it, he maintained; so that out of a 60 years' experience he had only six
months trial of a method which he believes to be inimical to fisheries. Too much
small fish were caught by the sweeps, the grounds are harrowed and torn up, and
the small fry have no chance to get away. Intensive fishing with the sweeps is
killing off the supply and more fish is thrown overboard than is ever brought to
market. This is true of all the nearby grounds, he contends. Had the 30-40
fathom sweeps never been used and the ordinary gear retained the North Sea and
Shetland grounds would have remained in good condition for from twelve to
fifteen years longer.
The popularity of Captain Peek was evidenced last week when a big gathering of
his own directors (the Strath Company) friends and fellow skippers, met at a
dinner to celebrate his retirement. Prominent amongst those present were Mr a T
Cruickshank, vice-chairman of the company; Mr J J Williamson, director; Mr
George Massie, manager; and Mr Frank H Hunt, secretary. Two handsome
presentations were made, a finely finished smoker's cabinet from the
directorate, and the other, a beautiful Westminster chimes timepiece from his
former colleagues and friends. It was a jovial evening and a happy send off to a
fisherman whose popularity from end to end of the coastline is so genuinely
manifest.
Skipper JACK PEEK
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