Old Photograph Fishing Boat Harbour Wick Scotland

Old photograph of a fishing boat entering the harbour in Wick, Caithness. Scotland. By the mid-19th century, over 1,000 fishing boats operated out of Wick. In 1864, a record catch saw nearly 1,000 boats land over 24 million herring in a single day, processed by 3,000 "gutters." Men and women came from across the Highlands and from the Western Isles and Outer Hebrides to crew the fishing boats and to work in the herring curing yards here. The women worked in crews of three, two gutters and one packer. The cured herring were shipped in barrels mainly to the ports of Europe and the Baltic countries.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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