Trawlermen’s Tales: Bob Formby’s Chilling Iceberg Incident
Bob Formby is a former trawler skipper with over 50 years of experience at sea. Working out of Grimsby for most of his life, Bob was skipper of large distant-water trawlers and captain on supply vessels for the North Sea oil industry. He also spent several years working out of South Africa and has fished all around the world. He was actively involved in the Cod-War disputes with Iceland. With a wealth of knowledge and experiences, Bob shares some of his stories from his time at sea.
In this interview, Bob recalls a terrifying incident from his early years as a skipper, and why it didn’t deter him from going back.
Transcript
In your first days as a skipper, did you have any scary incidents?
“Yes. One of the worst – well not a worst trip it was just an incident that happened one trip – but when I think about it now it still gives me goosepimples. We were fishing on the Norway corner of Iceland and it was really bad weather. It was cold and we used to use an iceberg as a buoy. We used to work a tow that we’d pass half a mile past the iceberg for so long, we’d come round, then we go back again, and do it again. Then we’d haul.
“This particular time we did our tow, we passed the iceberg at a mile, we came back, we haul, we did our tow. We got quite a lot of fish. Night time, we started shooting the gear away again. When we’d shot our gear away and the guys were mending on the deck or they were gutting the fish, they always used to bang on the front of the bridge with a spanner because they wanted either a dram of rum or can you put the music on on the deck. I was back at the bridge.
“There’s a banging on the bridge so I open the window to shout out what they wanted. This deckhand says “have you seen this?” and I looked up and the iceberg was about 20 feet away from us. The iceberg had moved and I was heading straight for it. The action I took was the wheel was put out of starboard, engine fuller stern, and we just managed to miss it.
“As we passed the iceberg we could see the blue of the iceberg under the water and we missed it by inches. Luckily we got straightened up and our gear was ok, but that incident still [makes me] come out in a sweat – that was so frightening. But we managed to get away with it. The iceberg had moved and it had gone right to the track where we used to be fishing. A nightmare.”
Do brushes with death like that just become part of the job?
“Yes. We just have to get on because no way can we stop and say “gosh that’s it we’re going home” because we have to catch a trip.
“So it was a case – I mean it was still in my mind – but it was a case of get on with the job and catch the fish again.”
Bob had a brush with death during his time as a skipper
Did the bad incidents ever deter you from going back out?
“This is it. This is another thing that’s quite strange because we could go to sea – I’ve done it – we go to sea, you have a really, really bad trip of weather, you don’t catch much fish, you come in the dock, you’re first words are “that’s it I’ve had enough I’m not going back again”. Three days later you’re joining the ship and you’re off again.
“Everything we did at sea was at sea. It was in the three weeks you did at sea. Our time at home – we enjoyed our time at home – but we forgot everything that we did that previous trip. It could have been the world’s worst time for weather or fish or anything but after our three days in dock this was all forgotten about ready for another trip. That’s how it was every trip.
“If we made a really good trip: the same again we went back again and enjoyed it. But we had some atrocious trips with weather and freezing and those three days in dock we forgot everything and we were back again the next day fishing. And I think every fisherman was the same.
“You’d have your crew that says to you “that’s it, I’m not coming back next trip after this trip” and lo and behold when we sailed there they were on the deck ready to sail again.”
What was it about the job that encouraged you to continue?
“The job to me was an adventure. On the deck it was all hard work. When you got to the bridge it was an adventure because you’re kind of the hunter. You’re looking for fish. When you go to somewhere and you’re on your own and you put your net in the water and you come up with a big haul of fish – God it’s such a feeling.
“When you see the bag of fish come up, it’s exciting. It was dangerous, it was exciting, and there was just a lot of adrenaline in your blood. I loved it.”
If you have any stories to share and would like to contribute to the museum’s blog please contact Chloe, our Community Curator, at chloe.james@nelincs.gov.uk