Reaper - Old Herring Boat

The marina at Anstruther is home to many yachts and sailing boats. It also has older boats from the Scottish Fishing Museum including the Reaper and old drift net fishing boat. The Fishing Museum is open to the public where you will explore the history of the boat building and fishing fleet fascinating and well worth a visit.

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Anstruther - Reaper, An old Herring Drifter - Fishing Museum Anstruther

Anstruther - Reaper is an old herring fishing boat now looked after by the Fisheries Museum

REAPER is a Fifie sailing herring drifter, the most popular design of fishing boat on the East Coast of Scotland for the greater part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Built at Sandhaven near Fraserburgh in 1902 as a two masted lugger she is 70 ft long. First registered at Fraserburgh in 1902 (FR 958) she moved to Shetland and was registered at Lerwick in 1908 (LK 707) where she was very successful for many years at the summer herring fishing. During the war she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and saw service in S.E. England. After the war she returned to fishing in Shetland.

Summary of Information from the www.scotfishmuseum.org website on the Reaper.


Boats, Fishing and the Sea: Compendium of Scottish Ethnology v. 4 (Scottish Life & Society) By James R. Coull	Scottish Fishing Boats (Shire Library) By Matthew Tanner	Fishing Boats of Campbeltown Shipyard By Peter Drummond, Sam Henderson	What is the Meaning of the Letters and Numbers on Fishing Boats? By Stewart Lenton	Kindly Folk and Bonny Boats: Fishing in Scotland and the North East from the 1950's to the Present Day By Gloria Wilson