for a good read about how it used to be with our trawlers going off to Iceland, the white sea etc etc read this
http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.connec...lwithhunt.html
personally I find it a fascinating article but I was brought up in a seaside fishing town and a lotta the lads at school had fathers out at sea. 3 day millionaires-out at sea for 4 weeks and then in for 3 days. Then back out again in all weathers all year round and hundreds of miles from home. Ships didnt come back sometimes, they just disappeared. The Red Falcon went down somewhere in the northern approaches a couple of weeks before xmas and my mates dad was on it. Before that my father was on a trawler that trawled up the funnel of a sister ship lost years and years before without trace. They rolled over due to the build up of ice on the superstructure or simply were overwhelmed by the weather. What a ***** life ! How things have changed-traditional navigation miles from home in blizzards by young guys who left school at 14 (although later they had Decca) - but now people think you cant out of the sight of land without a gps or two.