Brixham and the Sailing Trawlers

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Brixham has a special place in the maritime heritage story, and Brixham sailing trawlers are widely regarded as one of the legendary types of working craft, representing the peak of development in their field during the days of sail.

The South Devon port was the birthplace of deep-sea trawling. Deep-sea fishing had traditionally been carried out by ‘long-lining’, which involved baiting up to 4,000 separate hooks on lines which in some cases were eight miles long. It was a laborious method.

Small trawls had been used for inshore fishing, but the vessels of the time lacked the power to tow larger ones in the open sea. However, in the 18th century the fishermen of Brixham evolved a type of vessel which did have that power, able to tow a heavy trawl in a wide range of weather conditions, and with the speed to get catches to market in good condition.

By the time of the Napoleonic wars Brixham’s fishermen had started ranging further afield for part of the year, and by the middle of the 19th century they had opened up new fishing grounds throughout the North Sea and Irish Sea, using local ports such as Lowestoft, Grimsby, Hull, Fleetwood and Dublin.

In time some of them settled permanently in these places, and boats were built locally to the Devon design. Other countries bought second-hand British sailing trawlers --- and the design became the standard throughout the region.

At one time thousands of sailing trawlers were in operation, with major ports each having fleets of several hundred. They continued to be built until the1920’s. Some were still fishing in UK waters at the outbreak of World War II, and others survived in operation in Scandinavia until the 1950’s.