LOWESTOFT FISH-WHARF.
By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S.
During a visit to Lowestoft extending from the 3rd to the 24th of October, I paid almost daily visits to the fish-wharves, where the arrivals of fish are landed and disposed of by auction, the great bulk being at once packed and transferred to the railway-siding to be despatched to the various markets in London and elsewhere. There are two docks, each very extensive, and furnished with a landing-stage, covered in and paved, that devoted to trawl-fish being 500 ft., the other, 650 ft. long, to Herring and Mackerel brought in by the drift-netters. On the floors are deposited the Herring and Mackerel in great heaps, consisting of ascertained quantities, and these are sold by duly authorised persons to the highest bidder. The scene when the fish are being landed in large numbers may be easily imagined: the ringing of the auctioneers' bells; the shouts of "Mackerel buyers," "Herring buyers," or as the case may be; the crowding by rough men in a vast variety of costumes, from the great sea-boots and oileys to the serge-clad salesmen, some wearing an outer coat of linen to protect their clothes, and rubber boots or huge "clogs" to guard their feet: but all is picturesque in the extreme. The heaps of glittering Herring or beautifully iridescent Mackerel look like bright gems in the sun, and the bustle, great as it is, is in a manner orderly and perfectly good-natured, jokes and rough witticisms flying about in plenty; a stranger, however, soon finds himself in the way, and feels that he has no business there, if he is not present on business.
The wharf for trawl-fish is often an even busier scene, as there is a greater diversity of fish and more buyers, and many of them of a different class to those who frequent the Herring wharf, where, as a rule, the merchants and curers are the purchasers. The trawl-fish are landed in boxes called "trunks,"
