When the fish are caught they are bedded in broken ice in the hold of a drifter. They are then loaded into baskets and swung ashore and dumped on the floors of the quay sheds, where they are sorted into piles. When the fish have been placed in piles, men who wish to buy the fish are gathering to decide what they are willing to pay for them.
Stacked along the quays are hundreds of special baskets called "crans". The herring are measured into the crans and then put up for sale by auction. The average price for each cran is 70 shillings.
Some of the herring are sold to merchants who deal in fresh fish. These lots of herring are packed in ice and taken by train or road transport - the latest method is in refrigidaired motor vans - to the place where the merchant lives.
Large quantities of the herring are sold to men who buy for the curing companies. As soon as each lot is sold, the crans of fish are loaded into the lorries and rattle away over the cobble-stones to the curing yards.
The Scottish fisher girls might have been waiting for hours with nothing to do but knit and talk. When the fish arrive they get out their sharp knives and set to work.
Standing side by side at long troughs, their fingers flying, they gut the herring and toss them into tubs. With every two girls who do this there is another who packs the herring in a barrel with a sprinkling of salt. These are the herring that are pickled and sent away to Russia, Poland and Germany. Smoked ones go to Italy, Greece and Cyprus.
Other girls are busy preparing the herring that will be sold in our shops as bloaters and kippers. First these herring are slightly salted. Then they are taken to the smoke rooms. There they are hung in the thick smoke of smouldering fires of wood chips. Smoking gives the bloaters and kippers the flavour that everybody likes so much.
Stacked along the quays are hundreds of special baskets called "crans". The herring are measured into the crans and then put up for sale by auction. The average price for each cran is 70 shillings.
Some of the herring are sold to merchants who deal in fresh fish. These lots of herring are packed in ice and taken by train or road transport - the latest method is in refrigidaired motor vans - to the place where the merchant lives.
Large quantities of the herring are sold to men who buy for the curing companies. As soon as each lot is sold, the crans of fish are loaded into the lorries and rattle away over the cobble-stones to the curing yards.
The Scottish fisher girls might have been waiting for hours with nothing to do but knit and talk. When the fish arrive they get out their sharp knives and set to work.
Standing side by side at long troughs, their fingers flying, they gut the herring and toss them into tubs. With every two girls who do this there is another who packs the herring in a barrel with a sprinkling of salt. These are the herring that are pickled and sent away to Russia, Poland and Germany. Smoked ones go to Italy, Greece and Cyprus.
Other girls are busy preparing the herring that will be sold in our shops as bloaters and kippers. First these herring are slightly salted. Then they are taken to the smoke rooms. There they are hung in the thick smoke of smouldering fires of wood chips. Smoking gives the bloaters and kippers the flavour that everybody likes so much.
