A Scottish fisherman finds whisky & landmines in the sea
A story I failed to film
I dropped my change in a copper mug at the bar, and then I heard a “plop!” The bartender laughed and fished out the coins from the mostly empty drink.
“It happens more than you'd think,” she said.
Like the bartender, the man sitting next to me says he makes his money from fishing too. We get to talking, and he buys us another round. This is a story about a story I failed to film in Scotland.
Andrew lives in Cockenzie, a tiny coastal port town just east of Edinburgh. At 15 years old, he took his first job on a fishing boat.
More than 20 years later, this lifestyle is all he's known. Five days a week at sea, fishing mostly for cod, haddock and prawns (that's shrimp, Americans). I ask if he's found any lost treasure.
No pirate's loot or rubies yet, but he often finds full Scotch whisky bottles, a gift from the sea greater than gold for a longtime fisherman. He doesn't remember the last time he bought a bottle for himself as his collection continues to grow.
Another regular caught in the nets are relics from the past - WWII era items, mostly dummy landmines. He says they're a common find in the coastal waters around the UK, and many fishing boats unexpectedly gather them for disposal.
Andrew, now 37, worked for different companies in his teens and early 20s before buying a boat to run his own fishing business. He covers an area up to 100 miles off coast in between Scotland and Scandinavia in the North Sea. While he competes with other crews, he doesn't mind sharing the waters.
“There's plenty of fish in the sea,” he says. The cliche must be true, he would know.
Fishing Monday through Friday doesn't mean he gets to sleep at home every night. Once he departs Monday morning, he won't return until the weekend.
Early on, he says he developed a strict rule for himself - he must be back at his home port every Friday evening at a decent hour to see his wife. He's only broken that rule a few times in 22 years at sea.
That's living on a fishing boat for five days - more than 1,000 times. A thousand Fridays returning home with a bottle of sea whisky and a boat full of the catch-of-the-day.
Andrew, the salty sea dog, grew to enjoy his work. He found a balance between home on land and home on the boat, and that's impressive.
Our quick chat over a few pints wasn't enough for me. I wanted to dig into Andrew's story and tour his fishing boat, knowing it would make a great story for my YouTube. We made a plan to meet a week later, but it fell through. That was a bummer, but at least I can share our conversation here!
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