The shipping industry should stop this silly talk about seafarers being invisible. How can they be out of sight and out of mind? Seafarers love to post selfies on Facebook. And there is constant warbling from the maritime do-gooders about the rights and mental health of mariners that is louder than the song of a blue whale.
No sir, the really invisible ones are the fishermen who eke out a living from the sea. They are seldom in the media spotlight. Unsung, they face greater dangers in the course of their work than do merchant sailors. Yet, how many would spare a thought for these hardy folks?
Aboard a Dutch fishing trawler, 1943
Photographer unknown
Courtesy of Nationaal Archief (the Dutch National Archives)
Crew of the halibut steamer boat the Roman with pilot Oscar Grauer standing at right, between 1900 and 1909?
Photographer unknown
UBC (The University of British Columbia) Library on Flickr
Concarneau (Finistère, France): The sardines are removed from the fillets, 1913
Photographer: Agence Rol (French photo agency)
Courtesy of Gallica Digital Library
Norway. Cod Fishing,1910
Photographer: Anders Beer Wilse (Norwegian, 1865 –1949)
Courtesy of the National Library of Norway
Two fishermen in the southwest standing next to a fishing boat, date unknown
Photographer unknown
Courtesy of the National Library of Norway
Fishermen on the pier at Downings, Co. Donegal, c. 1910
Photographer unknown
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Saturday Afternoon, c. 1889
Photographer: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (British, 1853 – 1941)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Whitby Fishermen, 1880
Photographer: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (British, 1853 – 1941)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
[Fisherman in Doorway of Dock-House], 1916
Photographer: Doris Ulmann (American, 1882 – 1934)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles