Portrush fishing fleet (4): McMullan, Stewart, Doherty, Fleming, Gregg, Mullan, …..

Margaret McMullan says, “My late father-in-law Bobby and his brother Albert and John McMullan fished on the MVV ‘Family Friend’ – my husband Trevor worked on the oil rigs but if he was home or his work got slack then he often helped out. I remember waking up one morning to find a lobster climbing up my bed !!!!
“Needless to say we had lobster for tea that night. It nearly broke my heart though putting it into boiling water.”

The rafts at the harbour, the RAF boats, the fishing trawlers – all at the edge of my memory, and I am not sure if I am remembering them or just photographs and postcards of them. So, thank you to the folks who have contributed to this social history of the fishing fleet and of the Portrush men and their families at Portrush.

The previous blogs looked at the centuries of fishing in the waters around Portrush, and then of the attempt to make the harbour the base for deep-sea steam trawlers in the 1930s. But the fish shoals were elusive, the weather changeable, the markets fickle – times of gluts of fish that were unsellable and times unable to get the fish that people wanted, at the right quantities, to the right markets. The expected fifty trawlers a week just didn’t happen.

And the big deep-sea steam trawlers were stripping the sea of livelihoods. Even back in 1930, Portrush’s John Stewart’s highlighted the trawlers depleting fish stocks, and that only by fishing within the Skerries could he make a living.

Kerry Gregg writes, “The big development of the harbour never happened of course, its a pity but a fact that there is not much out there to catch now anyway – with modern fishing methods and high quality electronics, we have become too good at catching fish.
“I love the old photo of the steam powered trawler alongside the quay. They were a common sight in Fleetwood and other big fishing ports around England, but I suspect they were a rarity in Portrush.”

Tourism and the seaside air took higher priority, and visitors to Portrush in the 1930s “will find hours of interest in the magic of little coasting steamers and salt-crusted deep sea trawlers.” For the townie visitor, trawlers were perhaps a curiousity, photogenic, an unusual an infrequent and unusual sight – but they were the essence, the life-blood, the heart and soul of the town.

Wartime and restrictions and I don’t see any reports of that time. The fishing fleet from ports like Portrush were one of the key food supplies for the nation, and I assume the trawlers were armed and on the lookout for submarines recce’ing the coast. The photo above by Jack McConaghy (courtesy Raymond McConaghy) is “Harbour at War”, 1939 or 1940 – before the arctic convoys started and photographing of vessels in the harbour become a traitorious thing to do.

Ken Mcallister, a bit older than me, writes, “I remember 1943, when the fishing boats arrived in and berthed under the bins. My grandfather used to ask if they had any wee dabs, and he got the nickname “Dabbler” from Spud Fleming – so that’s why I am called ‘young Dabber’.  

And Ken continues, “I used to live at the bottom of Kerr St, Quarry Court. We used to wait for the horses and carts going around the harbour. Most times there was a spillage of course, and we happened to have a bucket handy to collect the coal. Butch Fleming used to spook the horse so we got quite a lot. 1944 was a good year.”

Painting courtesy Eleanor Bond, the caption reads,
“MVV Family Friend, Portrush 1955, skipper Bobby McMullan, crew Albert McMullan & John McMullan”
and Eleanor says, “This is a painting that a man in Portavogie did for us – where the boat originally came from.”

Sheila Brown: “Hi David, I have just looked at the blog. You have done a lot of research, its a great read. Before my time but a lot of names I know. When we came to Portrush in 1943, there were two big McMullan fishermen.

“Later on, in the 1950s, the clammers came to the harbour. We used to sit and watch the boats unloading every evening, about five boats, and lorries loading up with the clams. I used hundreds of clam shells making ornaments to sell in ‘The Shell Shop’ that I had on Main Street opposite the White House. They were popular presents to take home from Portrush. Those were the days David, maybe a slow way to riches but I enjoyed it.
“My late husband loved the harbour, with Richard McKay the harbour master at that time.
“Thank you for the wonderful history of Portrush, God bless Sheila”

Karen Monteith says, “Oh I’m liking this story more and more! And I think I may have bought a fair few of Sheila’s clam shells too maybe with a little disc of soap inside, I always thought they were very fancy x”

September 1957 and the newspaper article reports that the fishing fleet is now eight boat strong, and that they fish locally, in the Bann or Foyle, not further – and shush! do be quiet as at this moment the crews are sleeping, after being out all-night fishing.

The photo below left (sorry about poor quality) is news of another Portrush trawler, the ‘Aigh Vie’ – from left to right is John Colvin, John Wilson, Douglas McMullan and George Stewart, skippered by Robert Stewart and owned by R. Lynas. The photo is of them landing a record catch of almost 4 tons of grey mullet, at Portrush harbour, in March 1958.

The hard treacherous pretty scary part to me of fishing is the being out-at-sea, and then getting the fish onto the quayside. But the success of fishing as a business seems to depend on logistics – keeping the catch fresh / frozen, and getting the catch to markets. In the 1958 article below, the harbour-master John Doherty moans of the lack of freezing facilities at Portrush that would enable the catch to go to Scotland. I guess that shows the failure of the 1930s hopes of local catches, local port and processing facilities, and of getting the fish to local markets.

The Portrush fishing fleet is described then in 1958 as 20-odd fishermen, that’s sounds like about five trawlers, but the harbour looks pretty quiet in the photo below.

1950s, Portrush harbour

Ray McConaghy: “Great post David . Another name I remember was a youngster – well, same age as me – called Billy McLelland. I think his family were fishermen in the 50’s and 60’s?”

I see the name of another Portrush trawler, ‘Confide’, above, with ownership the same as for the big record catch sailing, with Robert Lynas of Coleraine with skipper John Wilson. It was October, late in the season, and this boat was the only one that ventured out that day – with the alarm raised and the lifeboat called out for its overdue return.

Wow all these newspaper reports and photos happened in 1958! It was a busy year. The photos above, courtesy Pete Doherty, with a newspaper caption, “Mr Doherty, his two sons and two brothers own between them the £1,500 Queen Elizabeth, which carries nearly 60 passengers a time round the Skerries and along the north Antrim coast.”

Eleanor Bond: “I’m sure you know Willie Gregg (left) was a great boat builder,” and Kerry Gregg adds: “My grandfather Willie Gregg beside dad’s boat, in 1965, at Quarry Court. And the photo with the three generations of Gregg is my brother Willie, my dad Billy, and my grandfather Willie, in June 1958.”

Janis B: “Thank you for this. We lived in Quarry Court at the harbour until we all were re-housed. So far from theharbour, it was very difficult for fishermen who’d been around the harbour all their lives. One retired man – Tommy M or was it McM – walked down to the harbour every day after breakfast, up for lunch, back down, up for tea. I used to watch him back and forth across the football pitch and to the harbour, no matter the weather.”

Trawlers in the harbour – 1960s? The painting of the McMullan ‘Fisherman’s Friend’ identifies it as ‘B79’, that’s registered in Belfast at that time, and the ones here registered as ‘CE’ is Coleraine.

Ian King: “Interesting to see John McMullan in the picture. There were (at least) two John McMullans in Portrush in the 60s. One was married to Rose so was called Rose’s John, to avoid confusion.  As a child I often wondered why a man’s name would be mixed up with roses. It was much later I realised the more prosaic truth.
I never did find out which was which (in person).
“He was good for me: my Dad arranged with Rose’s John to let me borrow his tender for the fishing boat when he wasn’t using it. I used to spend hours and days rowing around the harbour and yes, ferrying RAF sailors ashore for a shilling. Happy days. Truly happy. Cheers, Ian.”

And photo below left, smaller fishing boats, for closer to shore fishing. Left, from Pete D: “The big mullet haul” – I asssume this is the March 1958 bounty, as described above? And John McN comments: “You can tell by the smile on the face of the man looking at the camera that this is a very good day’s fishing! I think he is Old Tommy Doherty and the man immediately to his left is young Tommy Doherty.”
and from Stephen O’N, “That’s my dad at the back, Mack O’Neil, he’s the one wearing a wee hat”
Pete D: “All the local fishermen were involved. In that pic is Dad, my great uncle Tommy (‘Snowball’), my Uncle Jimmy, & looks like Jimmy Stewart.”

And, above right, photo passed on from George Lavery, who writes, “Salmon fisheries boat landing their catch – they averaged a catch of over 90 a day, in the 1960s / 70s,” and John adds, “I think the man is Spud Fleming – though don’t know who the young boy is.”
Lucy S: “I have a copy of the photo of my granda Jimmy ‘Spud’ Fleming and that young boy – I never found out who he was. I remember when we lived in Hamilton Place, the crabs would have got out of the sacks and walked up the tiled floor in the long scullery. I remember that noise vividly lol. Thank you for sharing these stories David. L.“
Stephen O’N adds, “….the boy with Spud is my cousin from Australia, his name is Shaun O’Neill, and that photo was taken in 1970.”
Kerry G: “It was 13th July 1970, and that photo is of my father Billy Gregg’s boat with 155 head of salmon in it, caught in the Ramore hill salmon bag net, that dad leased from Lord Antrim at the salmon fisheries, from 1968 to 1981. The boat was one of many that Billy built over the years, and yes indeed it is wee Spud who was helping dad to box up the catch, and then they were pulled up the quayside wall and into our shed – No.3, before the council saw fit to knock them all down. The fish would be collected by Sean Morton from Ballycastle who would call in his lorry on his rounds around all the salmon fishermen on the north coast, then those same fish would be iced down and be for sale in Billingsgate Fish Market the next day.”
and the power of the internet,
“I love these pics, I’m the 8 year old Shaun O’Neill from Australia with Spud Fleming (an absolute legend) – such great memories “

And George Lavery shows his painting skills too: “I am working on this painting of the lifeboat being towed back up the slipway.” 1960s?
David Patton writes: “Another great history David that you have dug up! and nice to see other paintings too of boats. And tell George to get that painting finish, it is too good not to. !!
Well done to you too, for your hard work. “

Kellie M: “Thank you, I really enjoyed reading it. So many names synonymous with the Port…. names from my childhood too as my dad was a marine engineer and we spent many long days in the harbour (and harbours all around ireland) while he worked on boats.”

Margaret: “Hi David, I hope you can use this painting of our boat, with Albert McMullan at the wheel, Bobby McMullan standing against the wheelhouse, and Rose’s John with his hands in his pockets,….
Sorry there are not many photos of them – they were all very modest men.”

Margaret McMullan: “I remember when Trevor was helping out fishing salmon, we weren’t long married and uncle Albert used to knock us up for we always slept in . Later when I took a walk down the harbour he’d be sitting mending a fishing net in the huts. There was always someone around the harbour that you knew. I can still remember the smell of the bait barrel! So many happy memories of living at the harbour!

“I remember waking up one morning to find a lobster climbing up my bed !!!! Needless to say we had lobster for tea that night. It nearly broke my heart putting it into boiling water.”

Brian S: “I used to meet the McMullan trawler every morning to get the small flukes to use as bait for our lobster pots. My means of transport was a message bike with a carrier over the front wheel. The trawler was normally crewed by Albert operating the engine throttle at the bow and Bobby steering and John throwing the rope ashore.”

Caroline Dorsett writes, “Brilliant David, I got totally lost in it! Photos are fantastic. I remember dad filling some of the boats with fuel and being given huge (well they seemed huge to a child) bags of lobster. We wondered why the dog was acting strangely one night and wouldn’t come in. He had found one of the lobsters making its way down the garden, having escaped from the bag and ultimately the pot. Dad then took it down to the rocks and released it, saying it had earned its freedom after its encounter with the dog!
“And I remember the fishing competitions later with massive conger eels being hung up to view. Is it any wonder that I’m not a fan of swimming in the sea – its got bits in. Sometimes big bits! Great stuff David.”

Eleanor Bond: “David, this is my dad, John McMullan, with the cap, and Kenneth McMullan, sitting on the big stone at the side of the shed that used to be near the bridge many years ago.” And Margaret continues, “It was sad day though when they took the huts away – it was the meeting place, the talking place, where the fishermen met and watched the weather to decide if it was suitable to set sail.”

The photograph above of the harbour in 1960s shows a smaller fleet, now, only four trawlers. David Patton writes, “The photograph and the painting of the four fishing boats is the harbour as I remember it. Looking back at the Dock Head wall with the big billboard, Minihan’s shop and of course part of the old Ramore street. The Harbour Bar, the old wooden shed at the railway crossing bridge that always smelled of tar. Across the bridge there was a pub that belonged to a Kitty Quinn. I can remember as a wee boy looking for my father: I would look in the pub to see if he was there and if he was, he would put me up on a stool and treated me to a glass of Club orange.”

And below, “My brother Torney took a photo of the fishing boat as it arrived at the harbour, in 1968, and that was the inspiration for my painting it. Torney knew two of the men on that boat, Richard McKay and Jimmy Stewart.”

And Margaret McMullan continues: “We used to get quite a lot of prawns when the boats called in – we were eating like royals and never appreciated it at the time! Lovely salmon in the salmon season, and now I have to buy it and it never tastes as good as it did then. Monkfish boiled in milk and onions and some times made into scampi .

“I remember you had to hang the monkfish to bleed it; Trevor hung it out at the bottom of the clothes line, but a neighbour came to my door and said, ‘I don’t want you to get a fright but someone has hung a nasty thing on your line.’

David Patton writes, “Again, all credit to you David, I love reading your writing, you have captured a time in history that could have been long lost.”

Fishing, always peaceful and happy? Rather a valuable and scarce resource, and stocks and fishing rights have been managed for centuries. to be managed, and poachers and over-fishers dealt with. Above left is 1950 and the Fleetwood trawler has been fishing off Portrush and Portstwart for 9 days, then sails over to Donegal but is attacked by three motor boats, with 20 irate Irish fishermen in each, with the cabin sprayed with bullets!
Centre right, 1970, a Donegal trawler caught by a Royal Navy, fisheries protection boat, for illegal fishing off Portrush, withpunishmens of fines and nets confiscated.
And right, salmon wars of early 1980s, with a couple of fisheries protection vessels against an armada of Donegal trawlers, fishing just off the Portrush coast. From early June, three months of the salmon running to the rivers, with some successes of trhe protection vessels like with impounding a drift net that was an enormous 4 miles long, but puny against the increasing size and commercial aggression of the larger trawlers being used.

In the 1960s there were royal air force boats stationed in the harbour, as support vessels for RAF Ballykelly as described in the blog ‘Leander House girls and RAF lads‘, informally helping the fishing fleet in rescues though not as protection vessels.

As we have seen, the big plan for Portrush harbour as headquarters of a fishing fleet back in the 1930s came to naught. Another innovation for harbour commercial activity in the 1960s though, was as a container depot, with the quayside developed with big cranes for hoisting containers onto ships:

Above left, photo courtesy Pete Doherty: ‘The photo says on the back ‘Jimmy Doherty, harbour-master, with Captain Jones of the MV Wirral Coast. The container service commenced on 13th September 1963. Closed down 15th June 1968. Jimmy Doherty died on 3rd May 1968.’ He was harbour master before my dad, but tragically died at the age of 47 I think.” The activity traded for 5 years, but I guess the size of and access into the harbour went against the location.

Arthur D: “My grandfather Arthur Dunlop was the foreman docker at the harbour in the ‘sixties when the container ships came in. He came hone every night with a bag of fish. He loved the job and the fishermen who he became friends with. I remember him mentioning the Doherty’s.”

Complementing the trawlers out at sea, Joe Mullan was promoting sea angling. The photo caption above reads, “Fisherman Joe Mullan, Chairman of the Ulster Federation of Sea Anglers, who travels far and wide for the sport. He is a Master Angler and an Irish Boat and Shore International.”

Garry McI:lwaine: “I was a regular at Joe Mullan’s fishing tackle shop on Main St. As a youngster, any walk “down the street” would include a diversion to Joe’s.
“Outside I’d drool over the line of rods and reels in his window. (I’d seen them many times but the sin of coveting is deep-set!)
“Inside, there was always a welcome from Joe. When three or four of us wandered into other shops like Graham’s or The White House, we always got that feeling that eyes were on us! Not with Joe. He was always engaging. He loved telling us about his black and white photos and stories behind them. He said that he’d love one of us to earn a species specimen badge. 
We always tried to find out where the best place to dig for rag worms was. He’d have two answers: it was a secret he’d never tell anyone, or he dug them at night so nobody would would find his place!
That was Joe… especially as we’d often see him collecting his “fresh worms” from the platform at the railway station!”

The Belfast Telegraph’s Peter McMullan, writing about his day of plentiful fishing in July 1968. The trip was prompted by Joe Mullan and hosted by Jimmy Stewart (left in the photo) on the Girl Phyllis, Jimmy taking a break from sleeping after his day job of night shift of drift-netting for salmon. Mr Mullan’s efforts led to investment by Coleraine Council on the slipway and facilities. The article writes about 30 boats exclusively for sea angling, with over 300 sea anglers a week visiting Portrush.

Going back to the trawlers, Margaret continues, “My late father-in-law Bobby and his brother Albert McMullan and John McMullan known as Roses John fished the Family Friend – my husband Trevor worked on the oil rigs, but if he was home or his work got slack then he often helped out. The fished local waters but it depended what they were fishing as to what time they fished.

Er, why Roses John? Eleanor Bond replies, “My father’s mother was called Rose, so he was referred to as Rose’s John – that’s how they referred to the different McMullans.”

Margaret, I ask, what happened when the boat arrved back at Portrush with their catch? “Well, there would have a buyer for their fish waiting on them at the quayside. Then, the boat was cleaned and nets were sorted for their next trip. During salmon season their nets, drift nets, could be seen spread out on poles to dry, at the harbour. There were nets, they were fixed nets, that were hung at the salmon fishery as well.”

David Patton: “My brother Terry, with nets spread out on the old railway crossing at the harbour, 1960s, with the fishing boats, four, in the harbour.”

Kerry Gregg writes: “I was lucky enough to get out fishing on the “Family Friend “ with Bobby, Albert and John. I was about 10 at the time, I was out many times and always on a Saturday morning or on the school holidays. We lived at the bottom of Kerr Street so it was just a short walk over the bridge to the quayside I would ask Albert the day before and set an alarm for 4am and away we would go, usually over to the area around the temple at Downhill and they would “shoot” the nets and ropes – the method was called seine netting. I would sit behind the wheel house and watch for the net to be brought up and the catch sorted into size and then into wooden fish boxes, that was repeated a few times then they would steam home and land the catch.

“I still remember after 55 years the tea that was served! Loose tea, sugar, milk all in the same pot and heated up – little washing up to do! Looking back on it now I was more of a hindrance than help but Bobby, Albert and John were the best of people, all very decent and they put up with me and my thousand questions about fishing.Such wonderful people and times.”

Time moves on though. Margaret tells me of the retirement of the McMullan family and then that the Family Friend boat was sold in 1974. “I never had a run out on it myself”, she says, but I used to get out on the lifeboat when they had a special day for flag sellers. My late father-in-law Bobby McMullan was cox’n.”

Interviewed in 1975, below, Tommy Doherty comments, “..out of a fine fleet of fishing vessels only one remains, because there isn’t much left in that part of the coastline to fish for”, and the too-quiet harbour is put up for sale:

“The present owners, Anglo-Irish Transport, a subsidiary of P&O, want to get rid of something that isn’t making any money….. For the present harbour-master, Tommy Doherty, it may mean the end of a job that he has held for 6 years. In fact, Tommy’s family have been connected with the harbour since the ‘Forties. His father was harbour-master and when he died, his son Jimmy took over. He died suddenly in 1968 and Tommy was given the job.”

Three big men of the harbour: Louie Craig, Tommy Doherty (Harbour-master) with Billy Gregg (boatbuilder / Willie Gregg’s father), about 1997.

Trish Gray: “David I remember so many of the names in this post. Bobby McMullan was such a lovely person, kind and gentle. Jimmy Stewart (coxswain of the lifeboat after Bobby, I think) had a small fishing boat – The Lady Phyllis, I think! Jimmy used to allow us ‘Lifeboat kids’ access to his rowing boat – Ian King, Dorma & Alan Cunningham, my brother Martin, myself and I suspect many others. I seem to recall Ian saying he used to ferry some of the RAF crew to the other side of the harbour!

1972 (courtesy Trish Gray) : centre, postcard, 1980s : 2023 (courtesy Maureen Kane)

“I laughed about Butch spooking the horses during the war and collecting the dropped coal! I remember coming home from high school, to a black bin bag on the kitchen floor, making strange noises – lobsters! Like Margaret McMullan says, we were living like lords and didn’t realise it!

“I remember huge conger eels being landed near the high diving board! I was very glad though, that no-one suggested we should have it for dinner!

“One year when I was heading back to Edinburgh, 1980, my Dad got up at 5am to meet Jimmy Stewart coming in to the harbour, and got a salmon. That salmon got well packed in ice, wrapped in a black bag, and put in my suitcase. You can imagine the face of the airport security guard, searching my case. They let me through with it – with hindsight, I’m surprised it wasn’t confiscated… I haven’t tasted salmon like it since!”

Evening glow, Portrush harbour and west strand (photo: author)

Pauline Rigby: “Oh David, you have brought tears to my eyes!
FYI My side note: my dentist here in Scarborough remembers the likes of Butch Fleming and Dessie, and his brother has a yacht in Portrush harbour now! Its a small world! His assistant laughs at the pair off us when I go for treatment and a check up (a catch up!) 😂😂xx

And finally, the photo below, one of my Portrush summer holidays, 2013, 10pm at the harbour, seeing the unloading of the catch of cod and the higher-value scallops, and the chinese restaurant up lower main st buying the bucket of scallops. Dessie Stewart there told me, they’ll get a few hours sleep then 4am sailing back across to Scotland.

Time moves on, things change, morph, transform, renewed – hopefully I can do one more blog of today’s geeration of fishing. And as I’ve said before, I don’t go for the Good Ol’ Days view of history myself – after all, in 30 years the kids today will be remembering these days as being the Good Ol’ Days – but rather, the life lessons, the example that these folks gave us, of hard work, modesty, humility, respect – and of hilarious fun and stories.

=====fishing. =======
Portrush – the Fishing Fleet, series:
(1) ‘No Man’s Land’ at Portandhu
(2) ‘Nobody’s Child’ at Portandhu

(3): “Fifty trawlers a week” at Portrush Harbour
(4) “Portrush as new fishing port: History is repeating”
(5) Portrush: HQ for Fishing fleet? Good times, bad times
(6) The Portrush fishing fleet

and hopefully, if I can get input from folk:….
(7) A life in the day of the Causeway Lass

‘Portrush Tales’ by David Martin – Index of topics