This is the extensively illustrated story of James Clifford, who left Derby aged 15 in 1894 and became a ‘fisherlad’ apprentice in Grimsby. Read about life at sea, the local girl he married and their family, the streets they lived in, and the growing international fears that they would have shared. James skippered trawlers in the early years of the twentieth century. He continued to fish in the dangerous waters of the Great War that began in 1914. Many of his fellow fishermen used their trawlers to clear explosive mines from the sea and hunt for U-boat submarines. James joined an armed trawler for the final weeks of 1918. The story includes the parallel life in the Royal Navy of James’s brother Charles, great grandfather of the author, including his wartime service in the North Sea. Read on to discover the family’s life and work during the difficult economic conditions of the 1920s and 30s. Towards the end of his working life, James was a quayside watchman and ‘fish lumper’ at the dock. One of his sons hunted U-boats in the Second World War, during which the family and their neighbours endured the Blitz. (118 pages with 97 illustrations)
