Trawlermen’s Tales: Bob Formby’s Early Years as Skipper
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 how he got into fishing and his first voyage as a skipper.
Transcript
My name’s Bob Formby and I used to be a trawler skipper. I’ve worked out of Grimsby most of my life and spent a few years working out of South Africa as well.
How did you get into fishing? What do you remember from your first years?
“My early days of fishing … I was at a grammar school and I was expected to have a pretty good job when I left. I left the school and I went to a college, Nuns Corner, and I was going to be a wireless operator.
“That was my ambition. I spent a year at the college and we used to come to Lock Hill, which was a college in Grimsby, that we used to do seamanship, knots, etc. The guy there was a fisherman, an ex-skipper, and that’s all he liked – fisherman. Eventually after a few weeks at this college he talked me into being a fisherman.
“He actually got me my first trip to sea. It was on a trawler called The Reboundo. It was a coal-burning trawler. My first trip as a deckie learner was on this ship. We used to sleep for’ard [forward] and in this fo’c’s’le [forecastle] there was eight bunks: four of them were for the seamen, the other two were for coal, because we had a coal-fired stove down there. That was my first experience of going to sea fishing.
“We only fished in the North Sea. The weather was not too bad, but I noticed when I was working on the deck with the deck crew they’d point up onto the bridge and say the skipper wanted you. You’d look up and his face would be in the window and he’d be making a T sign like this with his fingers. I’m saying “what does he want?” – he wants a cup of tea.
“So I had to go off and make the Captain a cup of tea, take it to him on the bridge. And from that day on I thought that’s where I want to be: on the bridge looking out the window and watching everybody else getting wet – and that’s my first experience of fishing.”
The Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre has a range of stories and items from trawlers throughout the years
How did you become a skipper?
“I did one trip in this ship called the Reboundo. When we came in the dock I was kind of promoted. I went into one of the new vessels – it was actually the Ross Cougar which is a similar ship to the Ross Tiger. From there I stayed in that ship long enough to be promoted up to a deckhand, and then I stayed in the ship for quite a while. I can remember my first pay as a deckhand and it was £36 – and God I thought I’d got the world.
“I bought a racing bike, I bought a record player, I bought everything – I thought I was king for the day with this settling. From then on, I worked on the deck and I got a chance of going third hand in a North Sea ship without a ticket. If they were short of men that’s what they used to do: if you were good enough you could as third hand without a ticket. So I did a couple of trips as bosun [boatswain] of a vessel and then the office decided that I should go to school and get my third hand’s ticket.
“The schooling is three months at college and it’s self-funded – we had to pay ourselves for this. So I eventually went to college, I got my third hand’s ticket, and luckily enough as soon as I got the ticket I got a ship as a boatswain. Then I decided after then that I wanted to go deep water – I wanted to go to Iceland and White Sea and Russia and those places because I thought that was where the money was and that’s where I wanted to go.
“I finished up going as a boatswain on one of the deep water vessels, there for several voyages, and of course when you’re a boatswain deep water you get chance to work on the bridge. So you go up on the bridge, do a tow, get a bit of information, pinch information from the skipper and the mate’s notebooks, and eventually the next step is as a mate. The mate’s time: it was three months at college again, self-funded again.
“Eventually got my mate’s ticket and was lucky enough to get a berth as a mate. But as soon as you got your mate’s ticket you had to do four years at sea as a mate before you could even go for your skipper’s ticket. So this four years would maybe take you five because it was only sea time – you couldn’t count your time off so you have to keep going until you got the four years in. As soon as I got that time in it was a case of back to college to get my skipper’s ticket.
“While I was mate doing this, I was with a big friend of mine who used to be skipper of the ship I was mate of. While I was at college every time this guy came in and made a trip we’d go out for a drink and he always used to put fifty quid in my top pocket which in them days was quite a lot of money – but every voyage he did that. I got my skipper’s ticket, went down to the docks and the guy had been mate with, the guy who’s been giving me fifty quid every trip, he got the sack and I took his ship.
“I was a bit, you know, a bit gutted about it and I said to him “I’m sorry this has happened”. He said “oh gosh don’t worry about it, you’ve got the ship and away you go” and this is how I started off being a skipper.”
Bob skippered similar vessels to Grimsby’s famous Ross Tiger
What was your first voyage as a skipper like?
“My first ship as skipper was the Blackburn Rovers. This is the one I took off a friend of mine. It’s a big responsibility when you take a ship’s skipper: you’ve got to look after the ship, the crew, battle the elements, catch the fish, and at the end of the day you’ve got to please the owners when you get back in the dock.
“So, you sail from Grimsby and you’re kind of king of the world, it’s your first trip skipper, but then when you get down to the grounds you thinking “gosh I’ve got to catch a lot of fish here”. A lot of people say to you “well how do you know where to fish when you get to Iceland?” and the thing is if you get to Iceland and you see 10 or 15 ships fishing, this is where you fish because they’re not there for nothing – so you fish there.
“When this fish takes off, this is when we get the diaries out: the information I’ve pinched off other skippers when I’ve been on the bridge, and where we was, and what we caught at this certain time. You start looking for fish. This is part of the job that I found really adventurous: you’re looking for fish, you’re battling the elements, and if you find the fish it’s wonderful.
“But it’s quite a stressful job because you’ve got to be on top of it all the time. You’re trying to earn a living for the crew and yourself, and then you’ve got to please the owners because you were always only as good as your last trip as sea. Luckily, my first trip we hit on a good fish spot and we managed to fill the ship up with quite a lot of fish.
“We came in the dock I think we had around about 2000 kit of fish and we made a record voyage of around about £20,000 which in them days was quite a lot of money – which stood me in good stead for doing a few more trips as a skipper. After then, we made good trips but Iceland is always a battle. You’re battling the elements in the winter months. The freezing cold. It’s atrocious at times but just the adventure of it – I loved to do 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