The Ring-Net Fishermen

A review by MALCOL M GRAY

Angus Martin modestly describes his book, The ring-net fishermen, as a documentary record. In its accuracy and factual detail it is certainly that. But it is also a great deal more; for it traces, with fine perception of the problems of its people but no less with a sharp understanding of the wider forces at play, the history of a compact community from its beginnings early in the nineteenth century to a modern period of decline. It "was a community defined by occupation rather than by physical location but it was nonetheless a sharply defined and exclusive group. Located along the east shore of the Kintyre peninsula and living in villages from Ardrishaig southwards its members have been concerned with herring fishing, an old occupation around Loch Fyne, but they have acquired a distinctiveness and unity from the novelty of their technique of ring netting, which is totally different from the more traditional method of drift-netting. The ring-net is operated by two vessels in concert, the net being cast to form a semi-circle and then dragged shorewards enclosing the catch of herring. This has been more recently modified to allow operation in deeper water but it remains a distinctive technique. It was from its inception much more effective than drift-netting and its exponents had to fight against the more conservatively-minded fishermen and, indeed, for a period against the law which attempted to ban the method. This sense of being outlawed only served to strengthen the purpose and to define the identity of the group. Angus Martin, coming from a family with generations of involvement in fishing and himself bred to the craft, fashions out of this raw material a completely convincing account that always pulses with life. He effectively uses his own immense knowledge of local lore and technical method but also skillfully marshals oral evidence and the full range of written and documentary sources, to establish a fully rounded picture of the community in the original innovatory and stormy period. As the story is carried on, sifting through the intricate detail of the modes and impelling necessities of following the calling, an apparently technical account is turned into a study of human responses and adaptations. W e come to realise that we are being shown the workings of a community continuously on a balance between traditions handed down from previous generations and a stream of innovations in methods and materials, in an account which always stresses the human implications of these changes. For all its base in tradition this was a continually innovatory and adaptive community. The accumulation of facts slowly develops a theme, though without any rush to generalise, and we realize what this innovation and openness is doing to the community; from adaptive self-help, and the use of the materials of the environment, in all the concerns of daily life as well as in the main business of fishing, it moves to a dependence on alien materials and manufactured instruments that have to be purchased. Correspondingly there is loss of a many-sided craftsmanship in return for increased power in the industrial drive. It is a thesis all the more convincing for its lack of explicit statement until the very last page of the book. It simply grows from the facts.

In the preface Angus Martin 'confesses* that he wrote the book out of 'perhaps too passionate* an involvement, and thinks that perhaps it might have been better had he worked longer at it. He need not have worried. An apparent artlessness is but a disguise for a finely shaped account. In fact he is in complete control of his
materials. It may, of course, simply be a natural and almost unconscious artistry coming through. What is
certain is that here is a fine rendering of human experience, a sociological thesis in human terms, without a
word of sociological jargon.
 

A very good copy with little use and clean and bright pages throughout.

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