‘Streymoy’ (GY.279) No. 2 Dock, Grimsby 1973.

Originally built as ‘Lydia’ (E.541), Esbjerg, Denmark, 1928

This image from a negative shows the Danish-built fishing vessel ‘Streymoy’ (GY.279) entering Grimsby’s Fish Dock No. 2 in 1973. At this time she was owned by Margon Hansen of Grimsby and was one of the many smaller fishing vessels working from what was then one of the world’s busiest fishing ports.

The vessel was built in 1928 by N. Ravn Byberg’s Skibsbyggeri at Esbjerg, Denmark, for L.C. Nielsen, and launched as ‘Lydia’ (E.541). During the Second World War, in 1940, she was re-registered in London as LO.281 and renamed ‘Lydia II’, enabling her to continue operating under British registration during the German occupation of Denmark.

In 1947 she was sold to Whitehaven, Cumberland, becoming WA.45 ‘P. Marbaek’. Two years later she transferred to Whitby as WY.23, retaining the name ‘P. Marbaek’.

Her Grimsby career began in 1960, when she was registered as GY.634 ‘P. Marbaek’. Soon afterwards she was renamed ‘Streymoy’, after the largest of the Faroe Islands. Ownership during the 1960s and early 1970s included Julian Egholm of Grimsby. In 1972–73 she passed to Margon Hansen, who re-registered her as GY.279, the identity she carries in this photograph.

Following the end of her Grimsby fishing career, ‘Streymoy’ moved north to Arbroath in 1980, becoming AH.131, before transferring to Oban in 1983 as OB.37. She was later converted into a private yacht and renamed ‘Blue Kingfisher’, based at Charlestown, Cornwall.

Visible in the background is the Grimsby distant-water trawler ‘Ross Jackal’ (GY.637), berthed alongside the fish market. The photograph also preserves the busy industrial landscape of Grimsby’s Fish Dock No. 2, with its fish market buildings, overhead conveyor systems and quayside activity typical of the port during the final decades of its great fishing era.

Photograph: Fish Dock No. 2, Grimsby,1973. From the Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum photo collection.