Free Folklore of Lincolnshire by Susanna O'Neill

the Fens and Marshes that were the source of such treacherous tales. The extensive Lincolnshire coast had its fair share of stories too. Fishing was at one point a huge industry in Lincolnshire. Grimsby was once the largest fish dock in the country and in 1923 it boasted that eight complete train loads of fish were dispatched every day. Some say it was arguably the largest fishing port in the world.
    Being a fisherman was a hard life and there are numerous tragic stories concerning fishermen who have been lost at sea, whole ships never returning and families and widows left behind to mourn the drowned crew.
    A fisherman is a man with the sky
    in his eyes and saltwater in his veins.
    A man who knows that every time
    he leaves his home harbour, he might
    never see it again.

    In tiny vessels they defy,
    the perils of the deep,
    and scan the water’s dreary wastes,
    With eyes that never sleep. 18
    One story, however, related in ‘Fish ‘n’ Ships’, tells of Fred Lambert’s close shaves with death at the hands of the monstrous sea. He was only a young lad of sixteen when he began the life of a fisherman. He says it was Christmas morning and their ship was out in a cold North Sea storm and he could see some huge waves coming at him. He didn’t have much time to react and the next thing he knew, the sea had washed him over the side of the ship. Luckily, as he says often happens, the sea washed him back again, whereby the skipper was able to grab him and push him to safety before he went overboard again. He had the courage to go to sea again and, amazingly, the same thing happened to him twice more in the span of his fishing career, again in rough seas and the same skipper hauled him to safety! His wife, Christine told her reaction: ‘Horrified. I was horrified. Though he didn’t tell me for ages. But you get to the stage where if they go over three times they say the sea doesn’t want them…That helps to keep me sane.’
    There are numerous superstitions connected with the fishing life. Christine Lambert was told never to do any washing the day her husband set sail because if she did, it was like washing him away. Another belief was that one should always give silver to a baby. If the baby gripped the coin it meant the fisherman would have a good trip. Dutchy Holland took his three-year-old daughter down to the docks while he went to collect his pay. When they were ready to leave, his daughter began to cry and said she couldn’t walk. Thinking she wanted to be carried, Dutchy went to pick her up and found that he could hardly lift the child; her pockets were so full of coins that the fishermen round about had given her.
    Fishermen’s wives believed that it was all right to go and meet their husbands when they came into dock, but it was unlucky to see them off. It was also unlucky for them to wear green. Deep Sea Voices tells of one wife who spent a long time knitting her husband a beautiful green sweater, which he downright refused to take with him for fear of bad luck. Many fishermen’s wives believed it was bad luck to knit at all when their husbands were at sea, as it was believed that in doing so they would snag his net. His catch would then be lost and their livelihood badly affected.
    The Lincolnshire Life magazine tells us that there were quite a few taboo words within the fishing community, which fishermen should not speak whilst they were out at sea. 19 Rats were referred to as long tails, rabbits were bob tails and pigs werecurly tails. The men also believed it was unlucky to whistle whilst at sea, as it would whistle up a dangerous wind. It was fine to whistle on dry land, or to use the word pig, and this is one theory as to why there are so many pubs named the ‘Pig and Whistle’ along the coast.
    Folklorists Gutch and Peacock talk of a number of superstitions concerning water. In the neighbourhood of Kirton-in-Lindsey, it was believed that no washing ought to be done on Ascension Day, since, if clothes