Hewetts Trawler

It was recently reported in national newspapers that a top supermarket had bought four Grimsby trawlers and employed their crews. The fishermens’ task is to catch fish for the supermarket shelves and land it – when and where requested by orders from shore.

Such is the demand for fresh fish!

The trawlermen are looking forward to new opportunities and a regular wage in an operation which will mean round-the-clock and round the year work.

This fish to order policy will take the industry into millenium – but it is based on centuries of experience and tradition.

And Fleetwood has played a major role in the development of the fishing trade – a town whose heritage is interwoven with the sea and its harvest.

Hundreds of ships, thousands of men and a variety of firms have all served on dockland.

Firms like Boston, Marr, Iago, Hewett, Dinas, T+T; New Docks, Wyre, Dalby, Cevic and Mason – the memories flood back!

Ships became legends and whole families were involved in either fishing or the ancillary shore trades.

Today we look at one firm – Hewett – prompted by reader John Bellwood and his father Tom sending in a brochure printed in 1964 to commemorate the company’s 200th anniversary.

The history of the Hewett empire – under the title ‘The Short Blue Fleet 1764-1964′ was produced as a supplement to the Fishing News and Fish Merchant and Processor.

It makes fascinating reading and traces all aspects of the company’s life from the founder Scrymgeour Hewett in Barking, Essex in 1764 to the boom-time 1960s.

The booklet gives an insight into 18th and 19th century development of an enterprise which spread from its Barking beginnings to its coastal expansion.

An article by Captain Robert S Hewett CBE, Company Chairman, entitled ‘From a small beginning to the world’s largest fleet’, charts the progress, and there’s a review of fishing vessels of yesteryear.

The President of Fleetwood Fishing Vessel Owner’s Association, Mr W Wilkinson (a Company Director) traces Hewett’s progress through war and peace with reference to the formation of a new company Heward Trawlers Ltd in 1936. This was born from the de3mise of the Game Cock and Red Cross Fleets (the chairman of the owning company was Mr H F Hayward) and the purchasing of all the fleets ships.

Vessels like Coot, Tanager, Warbler, Grosbeak, Everton, Evesham and Esher were all part of the new operation and several went to war. Evesham became a casualty and was sunk in the North Sea – her crew were saved. But Lady Love was lost with her crew in 1941.

Tributes are also paid to Hewett’s skippers and crews with pen portraits of some of the skippers.

Marketing and distribution is also covered and there is a special feature on Billingsgate Market in the late 19th century.

The role of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen is portrayed – both in its early days with a mission smack – operating with the Short Blue Fleet of Hewett and Company to the development of its shore bases.

There is also a special article entitled ‘The Hewett Fleet Today – Five Impressive Vessels’.

In 1964 the Hewett company operated 5 trawlers from the Wyre Port. All were built at Beverley (Cook, Welton and Gemmell) and following tradition were registered at the Port of London.

Three distant water vessels all bore the Hewett name – Ella Hewett (567 tons, 164ft built in 1964); Robert Hewett (567 tons, 164ft, 1961); Samuel Hewett (589 tons, 170ft, 1956).

The homewater trawlers were the diesel-powered Royalist and London Town (both 228 tons, 108ft and built in 1960).

The oldest – Samuel Hewett – was named after one of the firm’s outstanding members who died in 1871. She became one of Fleetwood’s top ships.

London Town also proved a successful ship – although fishing on her maiden voyage lasted just one day due to teething problems with the winch.

The Robert Hewett was the second to bear the name. She was built within a year of her predecessor being scraped in 1960. The first Robert – built as Beachflower in 1930 at Selby spent a third of her career with the Royal Navy when she was named Lilac.

She worked as a minesweeper in the Suez Canal and later became a naval training ship before going on active service during the Second World War.

The vessel was bought by Heward Trawlers (part of the Hewett Group) from the Government after the war and became one of Fleetwood’s top ships.

In 1948 she was involved in towing a disabled trawler 300 miles in the North Atlantic until repairs could be completed. The Allen Water was 1,000 miles from Fleetwood in Icelandic waters when she broke down and drifted for 26 hours. With repairs effected the tow was slipped and she reached Fleetwood under her own power.

The second Robert Hewett was built expressly for Fleetwood.

In 1962 – during her first full year’s operation – she was the port’s highest earning vessel.

She had a brush with the 397 – ton Boston Seafoam the same year when they collided while manoeuvring towards the lockpits in Wyre Dock. Seafoam had to put back for repairs to her wheelhouse and hauling gear but the Hewett ship was able to continue to the fishing grounds with only slight damage to paint work when her bows scraped the stone wall of the pits.

Fleetwood was home to three ships bearing the Royalist name.

The first was launched before the turn of the century. Iron-built, she began her career sailing from Hull – later moving to be one of Hewett’s first trawlers sailing from Fleetwood.

The 74-ton vessel was scrapped in the mid 1930s and was succeeded by the second Royalist (originally named Alnmouth and then La Manche when she went to France).

Many local folk remember when under the command of Skipper Bert Jinks in 1939 she picked up a greyhound swimming 5 miles from the Mull of Galloway. The following year she was rescued by the Agnes Wickfield which was towed her 80 miles to Belfast after being disabled in a raging gale. In 1952 Royalist was involved in a crayfish fishing experiment.

Scrapped in 1960 she was quickly followed by the third Royalist – a continuity of service which demonstrated the company’s commitment to the port and industry.

The Ella Hewett was the second ship to bear the name.

The first was built in 1953 – and regarded as one of the finest vessels in port. She went to a watery grave after hitting a submerged wreck in Church Bay off Rathlin Island.

Ella Hewett – the second – was launched in December 1963 and began her service as the Hewett company was celebrating its 200th anniversary.

In the foreword, Captain Hewett describes the supplement as “a short account of the development of the fishing industry through the eyes of one company that has for two centuries experienced the triumphs and adversities of changing conditions culminating in the maiden voyage of the modern diesel side trawler Ella Hewett”.

History indeed!