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There are few jobs as dangerous as deep sea fishing in the Arctic, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:12 | |
where gale-force winds and mountainous seas | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
have claimed the lives of thousands of men. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
In January 1968, | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
trawlers from Hull's fast fishing fleet | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
headed into these icy waters | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
in their quest for the biggest catch. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
It was a journey that would descend into tragedy. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
The waves must have been 30, 40 foot high, some of them. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
You know, you've got hundreds of tonnes of water | 0:00:40 | 0:00:42 | |
crashing onto the ship. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:43 | |
And I actually thought we were going to sink. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
We was fighting for our lives. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:49 | |
Within three weeks, three ships had sunk, | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
and 58 men had lost their lives. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
For their families back home in Hull, the news was devastating. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
Your brain's thinking... | 0:01:04 | 0:01:05 | |
.."What was the last words they said? | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
"Was he shouting for me, for his mam, for his bairns?" | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
"Would he have been fighting to get out of the water?" | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
All that plays with your head. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
But out of this tragedy came something extraordinary. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:26 | |
Fuelled by years of suffering and loss, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
in which over 6,000 of their men had died at sea, | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
the women of Hull rose up | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
to protest against the dangerous working conditions. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
They were led by an indomitable character called Lillian Bilocca. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
My mother just looked horrified... | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
..and she thumped her hands and she said, "Virginia, enough is enough!" | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
"I'm going to do something about this." | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
I've always been concerned, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
but I've never had the guts to do owt about it. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
But now I think that it's time somebody did. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
What Lillian and the others wanted was a safer fishing industry, | 0:02:02 | 0:02:07 | |
and they were prepared to do anything to get it. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
But this was a man's world, where women weren't welcome. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
I got a punch in the face when I was first doing it. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
JOURNALIST: Are you a fisherman's wife? | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
I'm a fisherman's daughter who died at sea | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
four years ago. My mother was widowed with six children... | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
But I wouldn't have stopped under any circumstances. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
I wanted something put right that was wrong. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
People should never put money before people's lives. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
This is the epic story of a disaster | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
that tore through the heart of Hull's fishing community, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
and of the remarkable women who risked everything | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
in their fight to ensure | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
it never happened again. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:47 | |
The circumstances that led to the women's protest have their roots | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
in Hull's unique fishing culture, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
and the dangerous working practices that developed | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
over the course of a century. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
By the 1960s, the city was home | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
to the greatest deep-sea fishery on earth. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
150 deep-water trawlers were based at St Andrew's Dock, | 0:03:17 | 0:03:23 | |
and every year, they brought in up to a quarter of a million tonnes | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
of fish, 25% of Britain's total catch. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
To bring in such large quantities, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
Hull's trawlermen had to take enormous risks | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
because the best hunting grounds | 0:03:37 | 0:03:38 | |
were 1,000 miles away in the Arctic waters around Iceland. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:43 | |
For the Hull trawlermen, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
the North Sea was, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:46 | |
more or less, a highway, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
a watery highway which led | 0:03:48 | 0:03:49 | |
to the fishing grounds, | 0:03:49 | 0:03:51 | |
which led to them fishing under the Northern lights. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
They went as far as a man could go without hitting ice, basically, | 0:03:53 | 0:04:00 | |
without hitting the Poles, as it were, to fish. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
Of course, because they went further, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
and as far as you could go... | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
..the risk becomes greater. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:15 | |
It's the most dangerous profession on earth. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
Not the most dangerous job in Britain... | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
..the most dangerous profession on earth. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:28 | |
You're 17 times more likely to die on a trawler | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
than if you were just an ordinary working person. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
Because of the extraordinary distances involved, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
the trawlermen were away from home for at least three weeks at a time. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
As a result, Hull's fishing community, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
which was based around Hessle Road, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
developed a culture all of its own, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
one where men and women lived very separate lives. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
One man who knows more about this community than anyone else is | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
photographer and historian Alec Gill. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
He's been documenting people's stories here for over 40 years. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
There are many dynamic features of Hessle Road, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
and one well worth stressing is that it was a strong matriarchy. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
The women are the unsung heroes, really, of the community. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
Because, while the men were away for three weeks, | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
they had to be mother and father both to the children, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
and so they did form this, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
this, like, sisterhood if you like. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
And it was a wonderful community that was close-knit. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
And it survived adversity after adversity. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
For Hull's women, the fact that their loved ones could die at work | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
at any time was a constant worry, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
made bearable only by the joy of their return. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
At St Andrew's Dock, families gathered to welcome back their men. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
But this would be only a brief reunion, | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
because after just three days at home, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
they would be back to sea again. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:05 | |
Lil Bilocca's sister Minnie | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
was married to trawler skipper Dick King. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
I loved the three days. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:14 | |
You'd look forward to that for three weeks, to get them three days. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:20 | |
It's a different world. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
It's a different world from what you've lived before. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
You've got your man, your husband | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
or your boyfriend or whoever it might be. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
He's yours, he's back. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
For children, too, | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
it was always a treat to have Dad return after three weeks away. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
Jean Shakesby was one of seven children. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
When Dad came home, it was really exciting. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
Especially for the younger children. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
Because, as soon as he put his bag down, he had sweets. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
So we couldn't wait for Dad to come home, you know. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
I know we loved to see Dad, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:05 | |
but it was the sweets as well, | 0:07:05 | 0:07:06 | |
everybody got sweets | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
and we was all treat, you know? | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
So it was lovely. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
And he was really a lovely man. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
Trawlermen were prepared to put up with this time away from home | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
because of the money. They were paid a weekly wage, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
plus a share of the profits from the catch, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
earning them the nickname the Three-day Millionaires. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
After three hard weeks at sea, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
some of the younger men let off steam in heavy drinking sessions, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
giving Hessle Road a reputation for trouble. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
But most married men, like Minnie King's husband Dick, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
spent their time and money providing for the family. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
They didn't talk about work for fear of worrying their wives. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
And they knew they'd soon be packing their kit bag | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
ready for the next journey. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
And when they put that over their shoulder, | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
that's not a nice feeling. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
You know where they're going. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
You know he's going from you and your children. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
I'm not going to see him next trip, or whenever. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
You never know. You never know. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
So you always had that at the back of your mind. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
On the dreaded sailing day, | 0:08:25 | 0:08:26 | |
age-old superstitions kept Hull's women out of their men's world. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
It was taboo for them to go to the docks to see their men off, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
and they never waved them goodbye | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
for fear an actual wave might wash them overboard. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
And the strange rituals didn't end there. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
There was a little ditty in Hull which goes, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
"Never wash on sailing day or you'll wash your man away." | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
And so it meant washing his clothes. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
Because when you think about washing, | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
if you're washing somebody's garment or shirt or whatever, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
you're washing the soul out of them, washing the spirit out of the house. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:07 | |
Also you're mimicking plunging them under the water. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
And so for a seafaring family, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
you know, you're mimicking drowning them. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
The hardships of a life at sea | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
were well known to Hull's fishing families... | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
..but many of Hessle Road's boys still wanted to go. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
Among them was Ernie Bilocca. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
It was tradition. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:33 | |
My father was in the Merchant Navy, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
my uncle was a skipper on the trawlers. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
My grandad was a chief engineer on the trawlers, | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
and all my friends was all on the trawlers. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
And it looked so glamorous when they was coming home | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
after the three weeks, all dressed in smart suits, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
a few quid in their pockets, making us quite jealous of what they had. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:56 | |
However, young Ernie faced opposition to his plans | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
from his mother, Lil Bilocca. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
My mum weren't very keen on the idea at all. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Didn't want me to go. There was no two ways about that. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
Because she knew the dangers of the sea. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
But I insisted, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
and in the end, she realised | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
that she wasn't going to be able to stop me. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
At 16, Ernie didn't need his mum's permission to work on a trawler. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
And while no boys under the age of 15 were officially allowed at sea, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:34 | |
some skippers did turn a blind eye. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
Hessle Road boy Ken Shakesby first worked on a trawler | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
when he was just 13 years old. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
For me, you know, a young boy, I thought, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
"Well, this is my vision and this is what I'd like to do." | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
And, of course, | 0:10:53 | 0:10:54 | |
you look up and you see the skipper who's in control of the vessel | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
and you think, "Well, that could be me up there in so many years' time." | 0:10:59 | 0:11:05 | |
And that was my intentions in life. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
Both Ken and Ernie were soon heading out towards the Arctic | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
as inexperienced but enthusiastic trainee deckhands, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:17 | |
known in the industry as decky learners. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
It seemed, at the beginning, that it would be a great adventure. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
The reality was something quite different. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
They were about to experience some of the dangerous working conditions | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
that would so anger Ernie's mum, Lil Bilocca, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
and the other headscarf heroes. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
I just couldn't believe how rough the seas were, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:46 | |
what the conditions was like, the hours that we was worked. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
Just the all-round working environment. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
You know, your life's in danger, there's no doubt about that. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
It's in danger. | 0:11:58 | 0:11:59 | |
In the 1960s, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:03 | |
Hull's fishing fleet was largely made up | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
of old-fashioned trawlers known as sidewinders. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
On these vessels, the fish had to be gutted on the exposed deck, | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
where the men often worked 24-hour shifts in appalling conditions. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:19 | |
The health and safety aspect was non-existent. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
All they used to say was, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:26 | |
"You keep one eye on the job and one eye on the weather." | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
And they were the simple, basic "safety" tools you had. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
"One eye on the job, one eye on the weather." | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
Because when it was bad and these, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
what we call the white horses would break, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
they would just come on board like nobody's business, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
and they would knock... | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
It doesn't matter who you was, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:47 | |
it would knock you down like it's anything. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
Being swept overboard was a risk, | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
but the ship's moving equipment was more dangerous, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
and it wasn't governed by the same safety laws as machinery on land. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
Deep sea trawlers were full of hazards | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
that could cause death or serious injury | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
in an instant. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
The wires that they used for towing the trawler, | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
they're under that much strain. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
You know, you're talking about maybe 50 tonnes of strain. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
That snaps, it'd take your head off. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
It'd cut you in half. No doubt about that whatsoever. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
Despite the dangers, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
many decky learners had little to no training before going to sea. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
So they had to learn from the more experienced deckhands. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
You know, when you was young and green, you would, like... | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
Like latch onto the older, mature people and you would learn from him. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:48 | |
And then I used to think, "Well, he's an old man, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
"he's been doing it for many years, and he's managed all these years. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
"So what he's doing, it must be the right thing, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
"so I'm going to learn from him, and hopefully that will get me through." | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
It's like, as we say in this day and age, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
it's an accident waiting to happen. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
But accidents did happen, some fatal. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
And it was Hessle Road's women who were left to suffer. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
One such accident occurred in August, 1963. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
The last time I saw my dad was early in the morning | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
when the taxi came for him. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
He kissed us all bye-bye and that, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
and then my mum went down the passageway of our house | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
to the front door with him, and he kissed her... | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
-SOBS: -Sorry. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:46 | |
And he said, "Bye-bye," and... | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
..that was it. We never saw him no more. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
He was fine, you know? | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
There was nothing wrong with him. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:00 | |
He just went out of the door and that was it. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
Jean's dad Stan was dragged overboard | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
when a shark became caught in the net. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
His body was never found. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
With nobody to bury, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:20 | |
it was almost impossible for loved ones | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
to come to terms with their loss. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
The thing that was sad for my mother was, she always thought, | 0:15:25 | 0:15:30 | |
"He's lost, | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
"he'll get found, and he's lost his memory." | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
And she believed that for years. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
With seven children to support, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
Jean's mum sought compensation from the trawler owners. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
But they claimed her father's death was an act of God | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
and refused to pay out, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
leaving the family with financial worry on top of grief. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
In the meantime, there was some happiness for Jean, | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
as not long after her father died, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
she married decky learner Ken Shakesby. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
I was 19. Jean was, like, 11 months younger than me. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:10 | |
For me, in them days it was, like, this is... | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
It's something there, what you get inside of you. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
This is it. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:17 | |
It was nice, you know? | 0:16:20 | 0:16:21 | |
So... The only thing was, it was his job. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
I used to worry all the time because I used to think of my dad. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
And I know it sounds silly, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
but I used to think "When he gets past 40, I'll feel better," | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
because my dad was just 40 when he died. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
And I don't know why, it just stuck in my head, that. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
What happened to Jean's mother and the family was not unusual. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
Without proof of negligence against the owners, | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
few accident claims resulted in a pay-out. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
But in the 1960s, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
the bosses that ran Hull's fishing fleet were all-powerful. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
People would often describe the trawler owners as almost feudal. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
That's not quite accurate. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:07 | |
They were entirely feudal. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
They couldn't be further removed from those that worked for them. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
And I'm not saying that individually as human beings they were monstrous. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
Their practices were monstrous. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
To send a man... | 0:17:21 | 0:17:22 | |
..to sea | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
with scant regard or even concern for his safety. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:31 | |
They're concerned only with what they brought back. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
In the quest for maximum profit, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
the trawler owners put enormous pressure on the ships' skippers | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
to bring back more fish than their rivals. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
They even awarded an annual trophy, called the Silver Cod, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
to the man who landed the largest catch. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
In this competitive environment, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
skippers expected the trawlermen to work even in the worst conditions. | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
Everybody's got a different opinion of what bad weather is. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
You get levels of storm, though, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
weather forecasts ranging from one to 12. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
Up to a seven, yeah, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:14 | |
it's all right, but it's starting to get a little bit dodgy, you know, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
a bit naughty. Eight's "No, I don't really work in this." | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
So when you get to nines, you would get some of the skippers... | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
..they'd fish in that, and that was dangerous. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
Very dangerous. But you'd no option. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
The bottom line was profit. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
But whatever the men thought, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
in the 1960s, they had few employment rights, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
and arguing with the skipper could prove costly. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:46 | |
The skipper was God. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
His word was God's. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
Whatever he did, we did. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
And that's how it was because, you know, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
they had the power to do what they wanted. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
They had the power to either make you or break you. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
It's not very often you, um, | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
challenge the skipper's... | 0:19:05 | 0:19:06 | |
..word or authority. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
If you did, you could almost guarantee | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
you'd get the sack when you got home. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
And what they done, they called it walkabout. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
And they made sure you stopped out of work for two or three weeks, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
until you'd learned your lesson. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:23 | |
This constant threat to their livelihoods | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
meant the men rarely complained, | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
despite the working conditions. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:33 | |
They might have complained that, unlike some continental fleets, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
Hull's trawlers sailed without the support of a mothership - | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
a rescue vessel, which carried medical staff and equipment. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
Instead, responsibility for medical emergencies lay with the skipper, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
who usually only had basic training. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
In 1963, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
Yvonne Blenkinsop's father had a heart attack | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
while at sea on a trawler. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:01 | |
The skipper was a good skipper and sent him down... | 0:20:03 | 0:20:06 | |
..to get in his bed and rest. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
But he needed treatment. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
He needed someone to get him the right medicine. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
He was never ill. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:14 | |
He was not once, that I can remember, ill in his life, my dad. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
Not once. I can never remember him going to the doctors. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
Nobody expected him to die, not one in the family. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
It was like a bolt out of the blue when we got told he'd died. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
He just went away a happy man, as usual... | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
..and it was not that he'd been swept overboard, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
or the ship had gone down, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
it's because he needed somebody who knew what they were doing. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
I know the skipper knows so much about it but they're not doctors. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
But, when you sit down to think about it, | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
it's the thing that they should have had. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
They could have got him off and got him home, | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
and I could even still have my dad. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
I know he'd be old, he'd be in his 90s. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
But, even so, he would still have a chance of being alive. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
Yvonne's mother was left with six children to bring up. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
The women of Hessle Road had lived with tragedy for generations. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
But, in early 1968, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
they were to suffer a bereavement of such magnitude, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
they could remain silent no longer. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
The triple trawler disaster | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
would thrust the issues of their close-knit community | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
to the very height of national attention. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
SHIP'S HORN SOUNDS | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
It began on the tenth of January | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
when a fleet of trawlers left St Andrew's Dock | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
on the early morning tide. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:57 | |
Among them was the St Romanus, a vessel with a poor reputation. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:04 | |
Dick King was offered the job of skipper. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
Dick was supposed to take that ship... | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
..and he said to me, "I don't fancy going, Min". | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
And he'd been to sea all his life. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
He'd never, ever refused a ship. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
He said, "I don't fancy going, Min." | 0:22:21 | 0:22:22 | |
I said, "Well, don't go, love. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
"Please don't go." | 0:22:24 | 0:22:25 | |
You know, there's something about it he didn't like. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
He said it wasn't seaworthy. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
The ship was eventually taken out by a young skipper called Jim Wealden. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
As well as being considered unseaworthy, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
there was no radio operator among his crew. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
The idea of going to sea without a radio operator | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
is like a blind man going without a cane, or a dog... | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
..in a dark street. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:52 | |
In times of trouble, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
a Mayday signal sent by the operator | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
from the powerful equipment held in the radio room | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
would be heard around the world. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
But the radio in the skipper's wheelhouse | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
had only a limited range, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:07 | |
leaving the ship isolated. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
Now that, in itself, is astounding. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
What's even more astounding is that that wasn't illegal. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
At around 7.30am on the tenth of January, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
Jim Wealden was struggling to get his basic radio to work. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
He contacted the trawler owners to give his position, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
then called his wife | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
to tell her he was unhappy with the ship. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
She never heard from him again. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
MORSE CODE | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
Over the next ten days, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
the owners tried in vain to contact the St Romanus, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
but took no further action, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:50 | |
as skippers often maintained radio silence | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
if the fishing was good, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
to avoid giving away their position to their competitors. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
It wasn't until the 24th of January, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
two weeks after initial contact was lost, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
that the owners finally alerted the coastguard. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
The same day, in houses off Hessle Road, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
the wives of the crew were informed that the ship was missing. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
Among them was 17-year-old mother-of-two Denise Hilton, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
whose 19-year-old husband Brian was on board. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
I sent him a telegram for our first wedding anniversary... | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
..and then these two men were knocking on the door... | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
..to say that | 0:24:34 | 0:24:35 | |
they've had no contact with the ship for so many days | 0:24:35 | 0:24:41 | |
and they're hoping everything will be all right, like. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
So, you're thinking, "Course it will be. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
"Course it will be." You'll get a telegram tomorrow, or you'll get, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
as often you did, a bouquet of flowers or a basket of fruit. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
You're thinking, "It'll be all right." | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
But then they come back again and they said they still haven't heard. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
And you're sort of living in a dream. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
You feel sick and you don't want to eat. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
You're looking at your babies and you're thinking, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
"He has to come back for them." | 0:25:10 | 0:25:11 | |
News of the missing ship spread gloom across the community. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
Ernie Blocher was about to set off for his next voyage to Iceland. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
When I was in the Kingston Almandine, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
we'd actually set sail from Hull | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
knowing that one ship had already gone missing, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
which was the St Romanus. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
There was a lot of sadness aboard the ship from everybody | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
because they all thought for the people back home. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
Meanwhile, off Iceland's east coast, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
the Kingston Almandine's sister ship, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:49 | |
the Kingston Peridot, announced she was struggling in bad weather. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
In force 12 winds, a build-up of ice was making her top heavy. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:59 | |
It was every skipper's nightmare. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
Ice gathers at a remarkable rate on a ship. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
A ship of 450 tonnes will turn over, what they call turn turtle, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:10 | |
where the ice is packed upon it, | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
and it turns very rapidly and disappears. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
Although no-one received a Mayday signal from the Peridot, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
as the storm passed, and there was no further contact with her, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
nearby vessels were alerted. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
We'd been fishing on the east coast of Iceland | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
when we got a message from the insurance buildings in Hull, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
telling us that the Kingston Peridot was missing | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
in that area where we were. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:39 | |
And would we keep an eye out for it | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
or look and see if we could find any signs of it whatsoever? | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
But we never found anything at all. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
On the 29th of January, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
the discovery of a life raft belonging to the ship | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
led to a full air and sea search. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:57 | |
And when three other life buoys | 0:26:59 | 0:27:00 | |
were found near an oil slick on the water, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
the Kingston Peridot was assumed lost, | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
along with their crew of 20 men. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
More bad news followed, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
as the loss of the St Romanus was officially confirmed. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
Another 20 men had perished. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
The people of Hessle Road were in shock. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
Everyone was talking about it. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Everybody knew one of the men on the ships. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
It was a horrible time. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
You just walked down Hessle Road and everyone, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
that would be the topic of conversation, | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
whatever shop you went in. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
Hull was home to a fishermen's mission, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
a church-run charity that provided emotional support in time of need. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
And it was the job of the port missionary | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
to break the bad news to the waiting women. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
It was a daunting task for newly qualified Donald Woolley | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
who'd only recently been posted to Hessle Road. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
Many of the people who lost their husbands or partners... | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
..were of no age at all. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Sometimes late teens. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
As were their partners. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:20 | |
But nevertheless, those people, being young people... | 0:28:20 | 0:28:25 | |
..must have been terribly traumatised | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
by what had happened to them. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
One minute, they were happy. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:34 | |
Another minute, they were content. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:37 | |
Another time, they were looking forward to coming home. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
But in actual fact, they were never to come home. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
17-year-old Denise Hilton was the youngest of the widows. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
My brain's thinking, "Did he fall overboard? | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
"Was he sleeping in his bunk? | 0:29:04 | 0:29:05 | |
"Was he shouting for me, for his mam, for his bairns?" | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
You know, "Was he all fighting to get out? | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
"Was it quick?" | 0:29:15 | 0:29:17 | |
And you think, "God, I hope so." | 0:29:17 | 0:29:19 | |
You look at your children and you think... | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
-EMOTIONALLY: -..excuse me... | 0:29:28 | 0:29:29 | |
..they're never going to see their father, grow up. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
It was... | 0:29:36 | 0:29:39 | |
Sorry. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:40 | |
Despite the shocking loss of 40 fishermen in two weeks, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
it was business as usual for owners and crews at St Andrew's Dock. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
But the women of Hessle Road could contain themselves no longer. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
Wives, mothers, sisters and daughters | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
now vented their anger at the lack of safety on the trawlers. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
For a start off, there should be a wireless operator on every ship | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
because a skipper can't be on the bridge | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
and in the wireless room at the same time, can he? | 0:30:16 | 0:30:18 | |
And the owners, they don't care. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
All they're interested in, the fish. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
The men, they don't mean a thing to them. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
They couldn't care less what happened to them. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:27 | |
As long as they're bringing the fish back. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
There's been that many men lost in the last five years, | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
that we just aren't going to put up with it any more. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
Even now the owners are trying to... | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
Emotions were raw. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
The double tragedy touched every woman in the community. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
Lil Bilocca worked as a cod skinner in a fish factory | 0:30:41 | 0:30:46 | |
off St Andrew's Dock. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:48 | |
Her daughter, Virginia, remembers how her mother reacted to the news. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:52 | |
Even though she was such a private person normally, | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
she was shocked and horrified. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
She just looked at me and she thumped her hand | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
and she said, "Virginia, enough is enough". | 0:31:02 | 0:31:06 | |
"I'm going to do something about this". | 0:31:07 | 0:31:11 | |
And I looked at me mam, and I thought, "Whoa, she means business." | 0:31:11 | 0:31:15 | |
And she said, "I'm going to start a petition | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
"for better safety conditions at sea." | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
Lil Bilocca was not alone. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
The pent-up feelings of generations of women boiled over. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
Thousands eagerly signed the petition. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
I remember Lil knocking on the doors with the other ladies, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
to sign the petition. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:38 | |
Those in the streets, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:39 | |
those on Hessle Road, clipboards and signatures, were getting signed. | 0:31:39 | 0:31:44 | |
I don't think there'll be anybody in Hull that never signed that. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
I certainly signed it, and my family signed it. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
That petition got 10,000 signatures in three days. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
In an area that only has 14,000 people. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
Imagine that's practically everyone | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
who could pick up a pen had signed it. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
On Friday the second of February, | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
Lil Bilocca took her petition to the Victoria Hall, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
where over 500 women gathered to demand action. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
Among them was Yvonne Blenkinsop. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
After the death of her father five years earlier, | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
she was desperate to get involved. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
You couldn't move. It was packed with people. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
There were loads there. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:25 | |
And I mean loads. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:26 | |
There were women of all ages, | 0:32:26 | 0:32:28 | |
from young ones who'd just become wives of young trawlermen, | 0:32:28 | 0:32:32 | |
there was older ones, | 0:32:32 | 0:32:34 | |
there was people who had already lost people at sea. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
There was all sorts of people there. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
Lil told the gathering they were there to talk about | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
what they were going to do after the loss of the two ships. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Action was needed. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:48 | |
She was prepared to go to jail | 0:32:49 | 0:32:51 | |
if it would win better and safer conditions | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
for men on trawlers. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:55 | |
And she intended to meet | 0:32:57 | 0:32:58 | |
the Prime Minister next week, | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
and not come back until she had. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
Yvonne Blenkinsop was then called to speak. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:07 | |
I just started speaking on the microphone. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
And I told them about my mum and dad, | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
and being left alone with six kids, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
having to bring them up, and how hard it was. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
I said, "I know how all you out there, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:20 | |
"if it's hit any one of you in this room now, | 0:33:20 | 0:33:22 | |
"we know exactly what you're feeling." | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
I said, "And it's got to change. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
"We've got to have better safety. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:28 | |
"We can't go on like this for ever and ever and nobody do anything." | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
And I said, "We've got to see the owners." | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
The meeting voted for Yvonne, Mary Denness, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
Lil Bilocca and Chrissy Jensen to form a committee | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
to take their demands forward. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
Jean Shakespeare was impressed by what she saw. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
Their spirit in Victoria Road, them ladies, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
when they were on stage speaking, | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
they were saying what we were all thinking, and wanted to say. | 0:33:56 | 0:34:00 | |
And it was wonderful. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:02 | |
You felt as if something's going to be done. | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
The women of Hessle Road were speaking out like never before. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
Do you think, as conditions are at the moment, they're safe at sea? | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
Well, no, because they don't have a regular check | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
of the safety equipment. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:19 | |
Often it's not even touched and they don't know what condition it's in. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:23 | |
What do you feel about this business? | 0:34:23 | 0:34:24 | |
Well, I think it's gone on long enough. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
And if we don't do something about it, nobody will. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
The men can't, because they're not home long enough | 0:34:29 | 0:34:32 | |
to all get together and organise something. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
So we have to do it. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:35 | |
I've always been concerned, | 0:34:35 | 0:34:36 | |
but I've never had the guts to do owt about it. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
But now, I think it's time somebody did. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
And I've made a start. It's up to these other people to follow me. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:46 | |
And to make these owners sit up and take bloody notice. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:48 | |
And now, not next year, or the year after. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
Many of the women wanted action there and then, | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
so Lil led over 200 of them on a march down Hessle Road | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
to confront the owners at St Andrew's Dock. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
We just walked silently down Hessle Road. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:08 | |
And it was fantastic. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:10 | |
You felt as if, "Right, something is going to be done." | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
You know, it was wonderful. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:16 | |
While a deputation of women met with the owners, | 0:35:18 | 0:35:21 | |
the rest voiced their feelings to the press. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
This was the chance for Jean Shakesby and her mother | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
to speak out. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:29 | |
You can see my mother is really verbal. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
Because it's bad enough losing one man, | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
but to lose full ships of men was just too hard to take. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
Lil and the others were fast becoming a formidable force. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:44 | |
But what can be done? | 0:35:45 | 0:35:46 | |
Lots of things can be done, petal, and will be done. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
We need a safety ship patrolling the areas 24 hours a day. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:54 | |
-Are you a fisherman's wife? -I'm a fisherman's daughter, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:56 | |
who died at sea four years ago. | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
My mother was widowed with six children. | 0:35:58 | 0:35:59 | |
I've been born and bred in the fishing family. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:01 | |
But that's apart from the fact. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:02 | |
We are fighting for the fishermen who's there now. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
I was thinking about getting the job done for the safety of the men. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:10 | |
That was all. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:11 | |
No! The thing is, our men are hard-working men. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
I wanted something put right that was wrong. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:17 | |
People should never put money before people's lives. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
For the first time, | 0:36:22 | 0:36:23 | |
Hessle Road's women had stepped out of their traditional domestic roles, | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
into a world where they'd previously been excluded. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
And they were getting noticed. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
Nothing like this had ever happened before. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
It was a man's domain. | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
Women sort of, like, never spoke up. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
But Mum, with her three other ladies, | 0:36:41 | 0:36:44 | |
had the guts and the courage, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
and the determination to change something. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
However, the women were about to discover | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
just how hard it would be to take on the system. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:56 | |
After they'd met with the owners, | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
Michael Burton, chairman of | 0:36:59 | 0:37:00 | |
the Hull Fishing Vessels Owners Association was asked | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
if he was sympathetic to the women's cause. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:06 | |
I have much more sympathy with the relatives who have been lost at sea, | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
frankly, than... | 0:37:12 | 0:37:13 | |
..a lot of women who are trying to... | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
Well, they're not trying, | 0:37:18 | 0:37:19 | |
but are getting carried away on a wave of mass hysteria. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
Well, believe you me, | 0:37:22 | 0:37:24 | |
I wish they'd had put me or my mother in that room with him. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
I'd have shown him what hysterical was, | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
because, how dare he...? | 0:37:30 | 0:37:31 | |
He hadn't lost no-one. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
You know, that was horrible, to say that. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
We weren't hysterical women. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:37 | |
We were trying to get our husbands, sons, brothers, whatever, safe. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:43 | |
Dads. We wanted them safe. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:45 | |
But despite the women's good intentions, | 0:37:48 | 0:37:50 | |
some of the trawlermen also disapproved of their actions, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:54 | |
because they lived in fear of the owners, | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
and were well aware that complaining could cost you your job. | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
Frankly, the ordinary fisherman is a bit sick of all these women | 0:38:00 | 0:38:05 | |
interfering in their own business. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:06 | |
The sooner we get down to dealing with the men who matter, | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
rather than the women, the better. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:11 | |
Things took a darker turn when the women were sent death threats, | 0:38:15 | 0:38:20 | |
and Yvonne Blenkinsop was attacked in a restaurant off Hessle Road. | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
As I get to near the door, | 0:38:25 | 0:38:27 | |
he comes straight up to me and punches me in my face. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
Said something about the fishing. I couldn't hear what he said. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
And off he went. Well, I just turned around and came back again, | 0:38:35 | 0:38:38 | |
didn't go into the toilet. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:40 | |
I said, "I've just been punched in the face. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
"A big one, right in my nose. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
"It was a wallop." | 0:38:45 | 0:38:46 | |
They didn't like women standing up and doing anything then. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
Women should be at home, looking after the children... | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
..and looking after... | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
You know what, cleaning, cooking. | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
They shouldn't be doing that sort of thing. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
That's what they were saying. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
At home. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:05 | |
But nobody was going to tell Lil Bilocca what to do. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:10 | |
She wasn't even worried about breaking the age-old taboo | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
that prevented women from going to the docks on sailing day. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:18 | |
She was going down on the next tide to stop any trawler setting sail | 0:39:18 | 0:39:22 | |
without a radio operator. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
I'm going to get aboard that trawler and stop on unless... | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
I'll have to be moved off that ship, forcibly. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:30 | |
I'll have to be carried off. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:32 | |
Unless that ship's got a full crew, including the radio operator. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:36 | |
The next day, Lil was at the lock gates | 0:39:37 | 0:39:39 | |
as a batch of trawlers were leaving for Iceland. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
Have you got a full crew, lads? | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
-ALL: -Yes! -Radio operator? | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
All the best, flowers. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:50 | |
Then, when a crew told her they had no radio operator on board, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
her moment came. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:57 | |
Lil tried to jump onto the trawler. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:01 | |
I remember my mother struggling, with six policemen and women. | 0:40:02 | 0:40:08 | |
There she is, struggling, because she, Mum, | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
was trying to jump on board a trawler | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
that Mum thought didn't have a radio operator on board. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
When she went on the dock, when she was struggling, | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
police were holding her back. She's a big woman, don't forget. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:25 | |
But she was a strong woman, an' all. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
I worried about her, then. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:31 | |
"Oh, crikey, Lil," I said, "Be careful, Lil." | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
"I'm all right, don't worry about me. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
"I'm all right." That's all you got from her, you know? | 0:40:39 | 0:40:43 | |
She's that kind of a woman. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:44 | |
She was strong. Whatever she wanted to do, she'd do it. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
That became the photograph on every front page, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:53 | |
this woman wrestling with the police. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
But the courage involved in that, what people missed, | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
had she have managed to jump, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:02 | |
the chances are she would have killed herself. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:04 | |
It was an extremely dangerous and headstrong thing to do. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:10 | |
But she was a very headstrong woman. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:11 | |
Do you think you're doing any good with this vigil? | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
Certainly. Certainly. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:17 | |
What do you think you're doing? | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
Well, it stops a ship from going | 0:41:19 | 0:41:20 | |
without a radio operator, haven't we? | 0:41:20 | 0:41:22 | |
That's a start. It's not the finish, it's a start. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
How much more of this do you intend to do? | 0:41:25 | 0:41:27 | |
The rest of my life. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:28 | |
How do you regard yourself, Mrs Bilocca? | 0:41:30 | 0:41:31 | |
As a sort of suffragette? | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
-Don't be daft! -How, then? | 0:41:33 | 0:41:34 | |
-Why are you doing this? -Because I'm a mother. | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
As a mother, Lil had once tried to prevent her son, Ernie, | 0:41:37 | 0:41:40 | |
from becoming a trawlerman. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:42 | |
Now she knew he was fishing in the same treacherous waters | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
that had just claimed the lives of 40 men. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:48 | |
But what she didn't know was the worst storm in living memory | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
was bearing down on the fleet. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
The weather had got that bad... | 0:41:59 | 0:42:00 | |
..it increased from medium-heavy weather to just unworkable. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:07 | |
In the space of... | 0:42:07 | 0:42:08 | |
..30 minutes. It happened very, very quickly. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
So what we did, we hauled | 0:42:14 | 0:42:15 | |
all the gear back on board the ship... | 0:42:15 | 0:42:17 | |
..tied it down. What you call lashing it down. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
Tied it all down. Secured it. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
And by then, it was a full-blown raging storm. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
Over a dozen Hull trawlers battled through the waves | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
to get to the shelter of a nearby fjord. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
As hurricane-force winds brought driving snow, | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
deadly ice started to build up on the ships. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
While his wife, Jean, was protesting on Hessle Road, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
Ken Shakesby was on the Kingston Garnet. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
The seas were absolutely ridiculous. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
Everybody's off the deck, | 0:42:52 | 0:42:54 | |
and we have a watch looking out on the bridge, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
radar, three or four men, skipper, mate, watch keepers, looking out, | 0:42:56 | 0:43:02 | |
listening and everything, you know? | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
Trying to get to safety, because it was so big, the seas. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
They would have just filled us. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:09 | |
And with the ice top-up, we would have just eventually keeled over. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
After hours spent hacking ice from the Kingston Almandine, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:19 | |
in a desperate attempt to stop her sinking, | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
an exhausted Ernie Bilocca had taken to his bunk | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
while the storm raged on. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
You get to know the motion of a ship after a while. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
You know when it goes to one side, it'll come back up again, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:32 | |
goes to the other, comes back up again. | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
This particular time, you can feel the actual seas | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
and you can hear them pounding aboard the ship. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:39 | |
You know, you've got hundreds of tonnes of water | 0:43:39 | 0:43:42 | |
crashing onto the ship. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:44 | |
And you know, boom-boom-boom-boom, that's OK. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
Boom-boom-boom. Blimey, that's getting a bit... | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
By then, you expect it to start to come back. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:53 | |
I actually thought, we was going to sink. | 0:43:53 | 0:43:55 | |
We were laid out at an angle, where... | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
..I didn't think things were going to come up right again. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
Well, I was that exhausted at the time, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
because of the work and what we'd been doing on the deck, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
the long hours, | 0:44:07 | 0:44:09 | |
I never had the energy... | 0:44:09 | 0:44:10 | |
..to get out of my bunk. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
If that ship had have sank, I would have still been laid in my bunk. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
Back on the Kingston Garnet, | 0:44:21 | 0:44:22 | |
Ken Shakesby heard on the radio | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
that the nearby Ross Cleveland was in trouble. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:27 | |
And through the blizzard, he could just about see her. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
You could see the flashing of his light. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
Bearing in mind, he's moving up and down, | 0:44:35 | 0:44:37 | |
and you're looking for the light. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:39 | |
And sometimes the snow, it gives you false images. | 0:44:39 | 0:44:43 | |
But then we would say, "There's the light." | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
And then we heard the skipper saying, this Phil Gay, | 0:44:46 | 0:44:50 | |
he kept saying, "She's going, she's going. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
"And I can't do anything about it. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:54 | |
"Give my love to my wife and to the crew's families." | 0:44:54 | 0:44:57 | |
We're looking, and then... | 0:44:58 | 0:45:00 | |
..the lights have gone. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:02 | |
And there's nothing on the screen and... | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
It was just after midnight, on Monday the fifth of February, | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
when the Ross Cleveland sank. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:15 | |
Another 19 fishermen were presumed dead. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:19 | |
News of the Cleveland's loss stunned the Hessle Road community. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
A double trawler tragedy | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
now became the triple trawler disaster. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
Despite the enormous losses, | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
port missionary Donald Woolley witnessed an extraordinary spirit | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
of resilience amongst the women. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
These people were really quite remarkable in themselves. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
Some of them were older, some of them were younger, | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
but I think I've never seen bravery as I saw during those few days. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:54 | |
They were brave because they had to carry on. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:58 | |
They were brave because they had to manage a home. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
They were brave because the children had to go to school. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
They wanted to show not only... | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
..their own love to their children... | 0:46:10 | 0:46:11 | |
..but sometimes I think they wanted them to... | 0:46:13 | 0:46:15 | |
..show their dad's love. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:17 | |
But he was never going to be there again. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
However, some women still struggled to accept the loss of their men. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:26 | |
The local church arranged a memorial service to help them. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:34 | |
And there's hundreds, hundreds of people. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
And you walk in there, and all the flowers are laid out, | 0:46:39 | 0:46:44 | |
and then they start playing Abide With Me and... | 0:46:44 | 0:46:49 | |
-EMOTIONALLY: -..all, | 0:46:49 | 0:46:50 | |
all that kind of thing. | 0:46:50 | 0:46:51 | |
And that makes it real. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:54 | |
That made it real. Even though you didn't have a body... | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
..all them people coming together, not just my family, | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
all of the other trawlermen's families, that's what made it real. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:10 | |
Meanwhile, the Government ordered an inquiry, | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
and summoned the trawler owners for discussions | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
on safety in the fishing industry. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
But it was the women's campaign that still drove the impetus for change. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
The next day, Lil, Yvonne and Mary | 0:47:28 | 0:47:32 | |
travelled to London to a special meeting | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
with top government ministers. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
I was dead centre to this one in the middle, | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
who turned out to be the head minister. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:42 | |
As I sat down, I said, | 0:47:42 | 0:47:44 | |
"I hope we're going to get these things," | 0:47:44 | 0:47:45 | |
and just said that, as I sat down, "All of them." | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 | |
And he just smiled at me, to begin with. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:50 | |
Then they started at the end and came through. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
Each of them, saying what they were saying, the girls and whatever. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:57 | |
He came to me. Then I said all my things. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
I said, "I've got a lot here, I'm afraid." | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
But I said, "I'm not going out of here until I know I've got them. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:06 | |
"And I hope I do get them." | 0:48:06 | 0:48:08 | |
I said, "They should always have a radio operator | 0:48:09 | 0:48:13 | |
"on board the trawler, always." | 0:48:13 | 0:48:15 | |
I said we needed a mothership. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:17 | |
We needed more modern materials to use on our ships. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:22 | |
Why can't we use some of the stuff that's used in the aeroplanes, | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
that's light and can be used? | 0:48:26 | 0:48:27 | |
Why can't they find something that could maybe... | 0:48:27 | 0:48:30 | |
..stop the ice going so far and being so heavy? | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
There must be something in this day and age. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
The women also wanted trawlers designed for better safety, | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
restrictions placed on the use of inexperienced decky learners | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
and a ban on fishing in poor weather. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:49 | |
When we was coming out, I said, | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
"Petal, are we going to have these things, then?" | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
And he said, "You are, my dear." | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
Real nice. With a big smile. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
He agreed with everything all of us were saying, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:06 | |
because it all needed doing. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:09 | |
Everything. Every one. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:11 | |
Now that was good. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:13 | |
There was more good news to follow. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:17 | |
Reports of a miracle survivor. | 0:49:17 | 0:49:19 | |
This is Isafjordur, the wild, icy north-west coast of Iceland, | 0:49:21 | 0:49:26 | |
where British trawlermen have been battling against | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
some of the worst weather the island has ever seen. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:32 | |
Now into this remote, freezing fishing port | 0:49:32 | 0:49:35 | |
has come a British seaman who survived a dying ship. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:40 | |
26-year-old Harry Eddom was the mate on the Ross Cleveland. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:44 | |
He survived in a life raft in which two of his colleagues had died. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
The news was broken to Yvonne Blenkinsop | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
and the others while they were still in London. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
Somebody comes in the door. | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
"They've found one! | 0:49:59 | 0:50:00 | |
"They've found one!" | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
A survivor? A survivor? | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
Yes! It was Harry Eddom. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:08 | |
I thought that was marvellous. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
"They've found one, they've found one!" | 0:50:11 | 0:50:12 | |
We were all absolutely thrilled. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:15 | |
Harry Eddom's miraculous survival quickly gained huge press attention, | 0:50:18 | 0:50:23 | |
making the triple trawler disaster and the women's campaign for safety | 0:50:23 | 0:50:27 | |
an international news story. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
Newsreel cameras were there to film him reunited with his young family. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
-TELEVISION: -Now the ordeal of Harry Eddom was over. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:40 | |
He was back with his wife, Rita, | 0:50:40 | 0:50:42 | |
and their seven-month-old daughter, Natalie. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:44 | |
The Eddom family were news, good news in a time of tragedy. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:48 | |
The lone survivor will be a key witness | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
in Government and Board of Trade inquiries into the disasters. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:53 | |
But first, there was the happiness of being home to enjoy. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
Despite appearing in front of the cameras, | 0:50:59 | 0:51:01 | |
Harry was so traumatised by his ordeal | 0:51:01 | 0:51:04 | |
that he's never spoken publicly about it. | 0:51:04 | 0:51:07 | |
But he did speak privately to port missionary Donald Woolley, | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
who previously comforted his wife Rita. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
When Harry came back, I had the privilege of going to see him. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
And we had | 0:51:19 | 0:51:21 | |
a natter about the things that... | 0:51:21 | 0:51:23 | |
..had happened to him. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:25 | |
But before I left his home, he said to me... | 0:51:27 | 0:51:29 | |
"I've got something for you." | 0:51:31 | 0:51:33 | |
And he went to the sideboard | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
and he took out a copy of the New Testament, | 0:51:36 | 0:51:40 | |
which had been given to him in Iceland. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
And he said, "Do you have any family?" | 0:51:44 | 0:51:46 | |
And I said, "Yes. We had the one son, Richard." | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
And so Harry took his pen and signed inside that New Testament, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:56 | |
to Richard, from Harry Eddom. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
That New Testament has been on our shelves in our little office | 0:51:59 | 0:52:05 | |
for 50 years. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
We are proud to have received it from Harry, | 0:52:09 | 0:52:12 | |
a man who I respect tremendously. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
Following the success in London, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:22 | |
Lil Bilocca and the others returned to Hull, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
where they reported back to the women of Hessle Road. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:27 | |
Of course it was wonderful to say, "Well, I've met with Parliament, | 0:52:32 | 0:52:36 | |
"we've got what we've asked for." | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
It just erupted. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:40 | |
All the women, it was so lovely. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:42 | |
You just felt euphoric after all the tragedy that had gone on, | 0:52:42 | 0:52:48 | |
that something is going to be done. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
It won't bring our men back, we know that. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
But it would help maybe the future men. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:56 | |
And at the time, my husband was one of them. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
But it was a wonderful atmosphere in that hall. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:05 | |
88 safety measures were enacted immediately | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
in response to the women's campaign. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
The first to be implemented was a mothership, | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
complete with up-to-date medical and radio facilities. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
Their Fishermen's Charter laid the foundations | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
for safety at sea for generations to come. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:28 | |
Welcomed by all, including those who had once been resistant to change. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:33 | |
As Mrs Denness said upon her return... | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
..to Hull, "We did more in six days | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
"than trade unions and politicians have done in a century." | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
There's no doubt about it, there's people walking the streets today | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
who otherwise wouldn't be, countless thousands of lives, | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
future lives saved by making the most dangerous... | 0:53:51 | 0:53:54 | |
..industry on earth that much more safer. | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
Despite the success of the women's campaign, | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
by the early 1970s, the future of Hull's fishing fleet | 0:54:04 | 0:54:08 | |
was looking increasingly uncertain. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:10 | |
In 1972, the Cod War broke out, | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
as Iceland imposed restrictions on fishing rights in its waters. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:18 | |
In the ensuing battle, the Royal Navy was called in, | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
as Icelandic gunships rammed Hull's trawlers and cut their nets. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:27 | |
By the end of 1976, Iceland had won the Cod War. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:38 | |
With access denied to its rich fishing grounds, | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
Hull's fishing industry fell into a sharp decline | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
from which it never recovered. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:46 | |
The effect on the Hessle Road community was devastating. | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
Sadly, trawlers were getting scrapped on one hand, | 0:54:57 | 0:55:00 | |
and also the bulldozers were moving in to the streets of Hessle Road. | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
And the fishing families and the Hessle Roaders | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
were being moved out to modern estates. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:09 | |
As the old fishing industry slowly disappeared, | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
so too did the memory of what Lil Bilocca | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
and the other campaigners had achieved. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:18 | |
And when Lil died in 1988 at the age of 59, there was little fanfare. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:27 | |
I said to Audrey, my partner, "Let's go to the funeral," | 0:55:27 | 0:55:30 | |
expecting there to be lots of people. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:33 | |
You know? I knew it was going to be at the Boulevard Baptist. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:36 | |
We thought there'd be loads there. | 0:55:38 | 0:55:39 | |
Anyway, nobody. | 0:55:39 | 0:55:41 | |
Just the family group went in, and the hearse comes along, | 0:55:41 | 0:55:47 | |
and nobody in the streets. | 0:55:47 | 0:55:48 | |
For a woman who had fought for trawler safety, | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
it was a sad way for her to end her life. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
Once home to the largest deep-sea fishing fleet on earth, | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
St Andrew's Dock is now a wasteland. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
But it's also a place of remembrance | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
for some of the families of Hull's lost trawlermen. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
Denise Hilton comes here to remember her husband, Brian. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:18 | |
There's never an 18th of January I forget, | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
which would have been our wedding anniversary. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:29 | |
His birthday's the ninth of September. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
The time he got lost, the tenth and the 11th of January. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
And my children have always known about Brian. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
The grandchildren, even the great-grandchildren. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
My little Ayla, she's going to be nine this week. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
They've just been doing something at school about the trawlers. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:50 | |
Obviously she could say, "Well, my great-grandad was on there." | 0:56:52 | 0:56:56 | |
Because they don't know him, but they know of him. | 0:56:56 | 0:56:59 | |
Any questions they've ever wanted answered, I've answered them. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
They say, "Will they see us, Nana?" | 0:57:08 | 0:57:11 | |
I say, "Yeah, but they're just in another room." | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
They're always in here. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:17 | |
And that's all you can say about it. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
They're always in here. Can't take that away from them. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
In 1968, | 0:57:29 | 0:57:31 | |
Lil Bilocca led the women of Hessle Road | 0:57:31 | 0:57:33 | |
on one of the most successful protest movements | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
of the last 50 years. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
Together with Mary Denness, Chrissy Jensen | 0:57:40 | 0:57:43 | |
and Yvonne Blenkinsop, | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
she transformed the attitude to safety at sea | 0:57:45 | 0:57:48 | |
and helped save the lives of untold thousands of men. | 0:57:48 | 0:57:52 | |
They should have an award... | 0:57:53 | 0:57:54 | |
..for what they did. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:57 | |
And I was happy, proud, | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
and so was my mother, to march behind them ladies. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
And I'd do it again tomorrow. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:04 | |
Today, Yvonne Blenkinsop is the last surviving leader | 0:58:07 | 0:58:11 | |
of Hull's Headscarf Heroes. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:14 | |
I'm so pleased and so proud I did do it. | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
I just wanted to do a job, and do it properly. | 0:58:18 | 0:58:22 | |
And get the safety for our men. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
Because our trawlermen more than deserved it. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:27 | |
More than deserved it. | 0:58:28 | 0:58:29 |