Hello fellow Mudcatters,

Following are the lyrics to a wonderful song that Ickle Dorrit wrote. She sang it at the Yorkshire gathering a couple of weeks ago. I have also included extracts from the correspondence that she and I had about the background (after getting her permission to do it!)

SPAREHAND – LINDA KELLY DEC. 2000

I dream of distant waters though my fishing days are gone
And for thirty years I've worked the factory floor.
At night when I lay sleeping I can still hear howling gales
As we hauled our nets and brought our fish aboard.
Though owners called me casual I'd twenty years at sea
And I swear I worked as hard as any can.
And although they cut the quotas and they took my job away
In my heart I know I'm still a fisherman.

It's a dim and distant memory now and fading with the past
Like a photograph that's not seen light of day.
But you can't forget the hunger and you don't forget the pain
Or the misery that doesn't go away.
'Cause when the fishing ended and the men in suits demand
"You'd better find another job and this time on dry land.
But don't expect redundancy or to have a helping hand."
Don't they know that I was born a fisherman?

The cold of the Atlantic chilled the hearts of angry men
Who struggled on to earn their daily bread.
Who like their fathers long before had ploughed the ocean deep
Who never thought their living would be dead
Now they're waiting by the factory gates and queuing in the line
But "Try again tomorrow lads, you've had no luck this time."
So they wander home and tell the wife and kids it will be fine
And I wish that I was still a fisherman

And the TV and the tabloids got bored and went away
And they told us that they'd bigger fish to fry
And the men in suits informed us it's a fight you cannot win
So give up lads and let the fishing die.
But they're sure to pay the owners, was their influence that great?
That they wouldn't have them suffer at their hand?
It's a trickle down economy, they will give you what they can
So you'd best forget you were a fisherman.

And the children sit and listen to the tales their fathers tell
And it doesn't seem a world they'll ever know.
Of the catches and the conflicts, of the misery and the hell
And the battle grounds off Iceland long ago
For their father is a carpenter, or a driver of a van
Or a lagger or a miner, or he does the best he can
But when he goes to sleep at nights he'll be bringing in the cran
'Cause you'll always live and die a fisherman

Yes when he goes to sleep at nights he'll be bringing in the cran
Yes you'll always live and die a fisherman
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I am interested in the fishing industry, particularly in Hull.

Last year after years of struggle, the trawlermen were paid compensation in lieu of not having received redundancy after the cod wars killed the fishing trade in Hull and Grimsby particularly, but also in other UK ports. This was due to the nature of their working status. Although in many cases they worked for one fishing line for maybe twenty years or so, they would sign on and off trawlers and were paid settling for each catch and then rehired for the next sail.

Because of this their status was determined to be 'casual labour' and the trawler owners did not have to pay redundancy. Subsequently, the owners were paid huge compensation for decommissioning their boats, only for them to sell the trawlers abroad. The casual fisherman, the 'sparehand', was tossed aside and for years the problem remained a bitter local issue but it was buried by the national press.

Only when Labour returned to office was it looked at again and the Government finally admit responsibility for the problem. My husband left trawling long before the Cod Wars ended and was not involved in compensation, but some of my clients are. Just before Christmas, an old customer of mine came in with a cheque for £20,000 from the Paymaster General. He wasn't a rich man. Living off his pension and a bit of savings - but he told me to put it away because he would never spend it as it would stick in his throat.

I sat down and wrote the song a couple of weeks later so it was only in Dec 2000 that it was done. It's staggering to think they have been denied their rights for 25 years and the compensation is still slow in coming through because tracing records after this time has been a nightmare.

It frightens me that things like this get forgotten about, or like the miner's strike gets romanticised in films like Billy Elliot -because its a stark reminder of what the Tories did to this country over those years. Hope you like the song please sing it often.

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