“Fishwife” Traditional 71

Garra bags upon their knees Mussels put on heuks Some in twas, some in threes. Heukes set doon line efter line2 When wark was feenished A sup tea was just fine.

Steaming fae the shall water The boaties they wid steer Landing whiting, cod and haddock Now they’d berthed langside the pier.

Kerties made wi auld pram wheels The lines wir pit on board On tap the empty piece box And a fry for up the road.

Dad and deddy busy-redding lines and tipping heuks Beaten threed at the ready to mend the eens that broke. Deddy, ready-fu he waited To redd the back o’the line mam baited.

Mam’s nearly feenished baiten –she’s on the last hunk noo Granny looks at mam and shaks her heed As she sees the biddum o the basket Wi a gret big sigh – she says, ‘Oh! dear me sirs - eh – lassie – foo we’re tasket!

From time to time, we were sent fir bark To the Sochie off we’ track. 3 We’d kerry it hame in broon paper pokes Sometimes tak the lang road And ging hame ower the rocks.4

Wi the boiler on the firie The bark was couped into dye Lines were left to steep And fir ages they wid lye.

2 Baiting lines was a daily chore for wives and sweethearts in Gourdon right through to the 1970s and a little thereafter. My mother,Ciss ( Elizabeth), like Jacqueline’s mother, baited the 1200 hook-line (sometimes 900 hooks) daily and either shelled mussels themselves or employed a sheeler. The whole business took many hours a day. The preparation of the line for shooting at sea and then the redding and repairing after it had been fished and hauled took considerable time from the men of the family. A detailed account of the whole process can be read on the Elphinestone Institute of Aberdeen University website in the Oral History Interviews conducted by Celia Craig with a number of Gourdon fishermen, in particular the interview with Andrew Gove Cargill being most extensive. 3 The Sochie was the Gourdon Fishermen’s Association : the shop, a sort of ship’s chandler for fishermen supplied clothing and equipment necessary to pursue line fishing and seine net fishing as well as accessing and delivering lorry-loads of mussels each day for mussel shelling, ready for the baiting of the line next day. Mussels might be sourced further south from the Tay or north to the Neeburgh. 4 Here the reference is to a preservative for a new line – bark.