About this artwork

Also known as ‘Men leaning on a Boat’, this calotype shows a group of Newhaven fishermen around one of their boats. Fishing was a profitable but highly skilled and hazardous business. The Newhaven men worked with the ‘small line’ to catch haddock, whiting and codling, and the ‘great line’ out at open sea. Every year during the herring season, they rowed 200 miles north to Wick, where they would fish during the night for six to eight weeks. After their strenuous and dangerous work at sea, they returned to land to rest. Cynical landlubbers would sometimes see the fishermen hanging around in the harbour and think of them as lazy, without understanding the difficult but irregular nature of their work.

Updated before 2020

see media
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Tell us what you think.

Robert Adamson

Robert Adamson