ABSTRACT
The typical distant-water trawler which sailed from the port of Hull had a crew of twenty men. The crew consisted of the skipper, mate, bosun, third hand, six to eight deckhands, one or two deckhand-learners, the chief engineer, second engineer, two fireman-trimmers, the cook, cook's assistant, and radio operator. All the crew members were ‘trawlermen’. In order to study the behaviour of Hull trawlermen, a researcher from the University of Hull made a voyage in a trawler. He also spent a period of unpaid employment in the Hull fish docks, and a great deal of time with trawlermen ashore. The fieldwork material presented in this case was collected by the researcher over a period of two years.
