Post Cod War Blues - Epitaph By Terry Ireland

It's by the old lock gates and not so easily found, there on the bull nose if you know your way around: a very modest monument, spare compact and neat, tribute to the lost of our deep sea trawler fleet. It's just a few feet away from that very place, the entrance to the Humber, where they joined frantic race to bring to the nation their very favoured dish, the harvest of the sea, cheap, tasty, fresh wet fish. Though it's never admitted, in the heart of the Cold war as well as their fishing that fleet did so much more, spying on the Russians at a possible great cost, for to be caught meant maybe ships and lives lost. Now among some dereliction There are still working docks Plying very different trades Through very different locks; there's still the new fish market now tucked quietly away, scant reminder of the past when King Cod ruled the day. The grey stone memorial, small, stern and austere, the site of a remembrance held once every year, while the Humber as ever rolls on down to the sea in silent reminder of how things used to be.

Copyright Terry Ireland 2010

thisisUll.com Featured Writer Terry Ireland

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