page_title: Scottish east coast fishery
section_title: The seine netter
hierarchical_section_title: Scottish east coast fishery / Fishing boat development / The seine netter
context_page_description: The Scottish east coast fishery has been in existence for more than a thousand years, spanning the Viking Age right up to the present day.
context_section_description: Petrol and paraffin engines began to be used in 1906.  At first, they were mainly fitted to smaller boats of between 18 and 30 feet (5.5 and 9.1 m) in length, and they provided auxiliary power to assist the sails. However, as diesel engines became more powerful, the sails were replaced altogether, and the engines were fitted in larger and larger boats. Motor engines were relatively cheap, making them affordable to individual Fishermen. Early engines cost less than £100, and fuel costs were low. These boats also needed less maintenance than steam vessels. The two most popular engine brands were the Gardiner and Kelvin engines. The compact engines meant they could be fitted to existing sailing drifters such as Fifies and Zulus. The traditional Fifie style was better suited to the installation of a motor, which led to the custom building of a number of modified Fifie design boats with motors.
  
  In 1920, though, the government changed the rules by removing the guaranteed price for the herring and prices dropped dramatically. In 1921, some Lossiemouth skippers noticed that the Danish seine net boats were landing huge quantities of plaice and other white fish at the English east coast ports. Their interest resulted in a few buying some seine nets and winches and trying this form of fishing. As they perfected seine net fishing, more of the Lossiemouth fleet converted to seine net. But boat design for this type of fishing was still proving to be an obstacle.  That, and the cost of the majority steam boats prompted a new style of fishing boat. John Campbell, nephew of William Campbell who designed the first Zulu boat built a wooden boat that resembled, to some extent, the "Fifie" but had a broad beam. His boat, the Marigold, did very well and over a relatively short period the entire Lossiemouth fleet (the first in Scotland) converted to the seine net.  Other east coast ports followed on very quickly.
caption: Seine Netter
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