Jacinta (FD159)
The names of all the Marr Fleetwood ships ended in "A" and they were all wet fish trawlers which preserved their catch in crushed ice on two or three week trips except for the Criscilla which typically stayed at sea for six or seven weeks and froze the catch in blocks.
Jacinta was a a stern-fishing ship which meant the trawl gear came and went via a ramp in the stern as opposed to the traditional sidewinder method where the gear was operated over the side.
On a sidewinder the crew did all their work in the open air and muscle power was needed to handle the fishing gear although it became a bit more mechanised in later years. The fish had to be gutted and washed on the open deck and the deck crew were often wet through. They were exposed to greater danger on a sidewinder.
The stern trawler needed fewer men on deck to operate the gear. The process was much more automated and mechanised.
Fish was handled below decks in the factory so working conditions were better and safer.
Although it took a long time in the evolution of trawlers to start building stern trawlers it soon became obvious that they were more efficient fish catching machines. The net could be shot and hauled more times in a given period than it could on a sidewinder.
The Marr family has a long association with the port of Fleetwood where they operated a fleet of trawlers for many years and had a fish processing factory under the Junella brand name. They own the current ice factory and cold stores.
J Marr and Son Ltd decided to build a fleet of wet fish stern trawlers for Fleetwood. Jacinta was one of these ships.
She was built on the Tyne by the Small Ships Division of Swan Hunter at Wallsend.
Launched in 1972, Jacinta was an immediate success with Skipper Bill Taylor at the helm. By coincidence, Lionel Marr - once chairman of the Jacinta Charitable Trust - went to Iceland on Jacinta when she sailed from Fleetwood for the first time following her maiden voyage which began in Wallsend.
With British trawlers excluded from Iceland's 200 mile limit, the future looked bleak for Fleetwood as a fishing port. In 1982 only the Marr ships were left and the company faced heavy dock charges. They switched the fleet to Hull and Jacinta was the last big ship to land in Fleetwood.
Although many small business fish processors left the industry at Fleetwood in those days, fish processing carried on and so did fishing thanks to an expanded fleet of inshore and pocket trawlers. Some were bought by ex-distant water skippers. They exploited grounds in the Irish Sea and North Channel and further afield in UK waters.
Around this time Lionel Marr chaired a committee in Fleetwood to promote Maritime England, a national tourism initiative.
He believed that the port should preserve a deep sea trawler as a heritage centre and found support from a few like-minded local men. They included Tony Lofthouse of the Fisherman's Friend company who had a deep knowledge of the industry. Local photographer and community activist Peter Horsley was onboard along with David Pearce who had written much about the industry as a local journalist. They were joined by Dick Gillingham, a local historian, from Fleetwood Museum.
The men travelled near and far - at their own expense - trying to find a suitable ship. Many trawlers had been working as standby ships around the oil and gas fields of the North Sea but were now heading for the scrapheap. The Fleetwood men saw some at a ship's graveyard on the Medway, followed up another lead in Lowestoft and then in Grimsby.
For various reasons, none of their efforts bore fruit and a letter to that effect in the Fleetwood Weekly News brought a disappointing lack of support. No one seemed to care.
Meanwhile, the Jacinta was fishing well from Hull. The Marr group's plan for the ship envisaged a 25 year life after which she would be scrapped or maybe sold to a Third World country.
Then, in 1994, Jacinta suffered a major engine breakdown. She was towed back to Hull from grounds north east of Scotland.
She had been fishing for herring and mackerel and had been modified by the installation of a large net drum on a frame above the winch. It was hydraulic and the hydraulic pump was driven by a Volvo diesel engine installed under the shelterdeck forward of the winch.
In the engine room, a 1900 horse power English Electric Ruston Hornsby diesel engine provided the power. It drove a gearbox from which a long prop shaft ran through a tunnel under the fish room to turn a variable pitch propeller.
There was a power take off on the forward end of the engine which drove two in-line generators. One provided power for the winch motor and the other for general consumption. There was a back up generator in the engine room driven by a Lister diesel.
It was found that the crankshaft of the main engine had snapped. It was the second time this had happened. The insurers decided the ship should be scrapped.
Alan Marr, chairman of the company and cousin to the Fleetwood campaigner Lionel Marr, knew of the efforts to find a heritage ship for Fleetwood and offered to give the Jacinta to Fleetwood in a gesture recalling the family's long links with the port.
His accountants told him the ship must be sold because it was an asset of the firm. The price was £1 and the shiny new coin was framed onboard.
The Jacinta Charitable Trust, a registered charity, was set up and Jacinta was towed home to Fleetwood in February, 1995.
A team of volunteers set to work on the battered, rusty ship.
Subsequently, a support group called Friends of Jacinta was set up.
Skipper Taylor cut the ribbon to open the ship to visitors after Associated British Ports provided a berth in Fleetwood's fish dock.
Jacinta's new life had begun but the Trustees had ambitious plans to modify part of the interior and to find a replacement engine so they could take the story of deep sea fishing and the fishing community to other ports.
After basic cleaning and painting which meant removing literally tons of flaky rust from Jacinta, the ship opened to visitors. Some were casual visitors who walked through a gate on the Freeport Shopping Village and walked about 200 yards over the quay to reach the ship.
Tickets were sold and guides Dick Farrer and Frank Bee escorted parties round the vessel. Others came in organised groups at various times of the day and night including many schoolchildren.
In 1997 the fishroom was altered by Fleetwod Trawler Supply Company Building Division (Peter Hall Builders) to create a large open space. But part was kept in the original format to show visitors how fish was stowed away.
Before the fishroom conversion could begin, a team of volunteers removed ballast which had been set in place to counteract the weight of the pelagic net drum equipment up on deck. This ballast took the form of concrete building blocks cemented together in layers and was saturated with fish muck. It was a heavy and smelly task. Loads were winched up through a hatch just like baskets of fish and removed via the quayside. It was sometimes snowing while this work went on at weekends for many of the volunteers were at work in those days.
Gradually, the walls of this space were filled by photographs, ship models and memorabilia from the fishing industry world. The floor space meant that many events were held onboard from a christening to annual sessions with the Fylde Folk Festival and the Jacinta Christmas Carol Service. All sorts of food was consumed there.
This fishroom facility greatly enhanced the visitor experience.
Later in 1997 the Trustees began to discuss the possibility of making Jacinta mobile again.
Rather than rebuild the failed engine they decided to try and find a similar model as a replacement. Finally they heard of one for sale which had been used to power a generator for emergency lighting at the South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall. It was an English Electric Ruston Hornsby but a lower hp - 1,633. That did not matter as we would not be fishing.
After a great deal of groundwork it was decided to give the job to a firm called Lengthline which later changed its name to Manchester Drydocks. They were based in a dry dock near the present day Salford Quays. In May, 2001, Jacinta was towed down to the Mersey and then up the Manchester Ship Canal for the big refit.
A large hole was cut in the ship's side and the old engine removed. Then the replacement went in. The redundant winch generator was removed and sold.
All seemed well until April, 2003 when the work was complete and it was time for testing by the Marine Coastguard Agency. Disaster struck during the test when there was another major engine failure.
That was the start of a long and complex chain of events involving insurance companies and lawyers.
The outcome was that Jacinta was towed to Garston docks on the Mersey and the Liverpool firm of James Troop stripped the engine down to the last nut and bolt. It was discovered that new piping which had been welded had not been "pickled" i.e. flushed with acid to remove fragments of metal from the welding. This metal waste had caused a blockage in the lubricating oil system and a major overheat. More important was that the engine was not aligned correctly on its bed and this had damaged the crankshaft.
Finally, Jacinta was repaired and up and running and passed her MCA inspection. She was ready for sea. On Saturday, May 31st, 2003 she underwent sea trials in the Mersey and then sailed to Barrow where she spent the night in dock.
The following day, decked with bunting and with wives joining Trustees and crew members onboard she sailed back into Fleetwood under her own power to a very warm welcome from a huge crowd on a sunny afternoon. It was a very emotional moment.
Jacinta began to visit maritime festivals and events around the coast. She went to Whitehaven (twice), Barrow, Bristol, Hull. Grimsby, Isle of Man, Silloth, Glasgow, Warrenpoint, Belfast, Milford Haven, and, after taking part in the Spithead Review of 2005, she entered the historic Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth for the International Festival of the Sea.
Both the ship and her crew had to pass regular inspections by the Marine Coastguard Agency and a great deal of money was spent on Jacinta to keep her fit for sea including two major refits in dry dock at Camell Laird, Birkenhead. Originally, it was possible to take Jacinta out of the water on the slipway at Fleetwood docks but this was scrapped as ABP developed their marina facilities.
Engineering work over the years included removing the original Lister on the auxiliary generator and replacing it with the Volvo which had driven the net drum hydraulic pump. When this finally failed, a secondhand Volvo was bought to replace it. Additional generating power was provided by utilising the surviving generator which had run off the PTO of the main engine. Another, larger, Volvo engine was bought to do this via a belt drive. This Volvo was purchased from a Danish scrapyard and had once run in an Icelandic seiner.
Jacinta had a DC power system but a rotary converter can supply AC for modern navigational equipment.
A supply of electricity from shore via a cable was available to keep background heat in the engine room during winter.
Finally, in 2012, the Trustees decided that, due to the age profile of the crew and the age of the ship - celebrating her 40th birthday with a party - that it was a case of safety first and Jacinta would retire from sailing and go back to her role as a floating heritage centre.
During the voyages of Jacinta many thousands of people visited the ship and countless visitors commented on that as being an interesting experience. Many appreciated the opportunity to talk to ex fishermen who had been at the sharp end of the industry.
Because of Associated British Port's health and safety policy, casual visitors were no longer permitted to access the fish dock quay via Freeport. But organised parties continued to visit the ship and events were held onboard.
At the time, Lionel Marr, Chairman of the Jacinta Charitable Trust, said: "During nearly 20 years of Jacinta's new life in Fleetwood, we have survived some ups and downs. Overall, we have more than fulfilled our original aim of preserving a ship and showing the public what the distant water fishing industry was all about."
For seven more years, the Jacinta continued to welcome visitors and host events from its home in Fleetwood's fish dock.
Sadly for all, in 2019 Fleetwood's heritage trawler, Jacinta, was set to be taken away to be scrapped.
The following press release from the Jacinta Charitable Trust explained the difficult decision:
FLEETWOOD'S heritage trawler, Jacinta, is to be scrapped.
The 47-year-old vessel which is moored in the Fleetwood Harbour Marina has fallen victim to a chain of events which mean she has reached the end of her life.
David Pearce, Chairman of the Jacinta Charitable Trust which owns the former arctic trawler, said: "It is a sad day. For the last 12 months the Trustees have been trying to find a more positive future for Jacinta but without success."
Problems began when two leaks were detected in the port side of the ship which rests against the quayside. Plans to tow the ship to the Cammell Laird shipyard at Birkenhead for repairs and maintenance were put on hold because the Maritime & Coastguard Agency ruled that the ship could not leave port unless temporary repairs could be made in Fleetwood docks.
David said: "We have employed professional divers and highly skilled craftsmen on two occasions and they have not been able to achieve the temporary repairs. They have revealed further damage on the port side."
Last year, two of the trustees died - first Tony Lofthouse the generous benefactor who financed the whole Jacinta project and then, five weeks later, Lionel Marr, Chairman of the Jacinta Trust who brought the ship to Fleetwood in 1995 and headed the team which ran Jacinta.
David said: "Apart from the personnel nature of these tragedies, the deaths of our two colleagues and friends meant changes for the Trust which have had a bearing on our work."
Since the ship could not leave the port the Trust examined ways of preserving Jacinta by lifting her out onto dry land or encasing her in a dry dock.
David said: "These ideas do not stack up practically or financially."
Meanwhile other members of the Jacinta team have retired or died over the years leaving only a small group of pensioners to look after the ship.
David said: "Even if we could put Jacinta into a better condition now, there is no one to look after her in the long term and the revenue from visitors never did pay the bills. A fortune has been spent on the upkeep of the vessel over the years. The Trustees have a legal duty to act responsibly and we would not want Jacinta to become an old hulk or even sink in the dock. It is time for her to go."
Now, the Trustees are working with Associated British Ports, the owners of Fleetwood docks and talking to specialist firms of ship dismantlers along with the Department of the Environment who will oversee the work within the dock complex.
Jacinta was a record-breaking earner when she fished from Fleetwood and Hull and was given to the Trust by the Marr family at a time when she was about to be scrapped. The ship was restored and was able to sail again under her own power to visit maritime events all around Britain including the Spithead Review of 2005.
Thousands of people have visited Jacinta with her crew of ex-trawlermen and enthusiastic amateurs. Many schoolchildren have toured the ship.
David said: "Nearly 25 years ago we set out to tell people the story of deep sea fishing and about the men and women who made it happen. Jacinta has achieved that aim in spades. We are rightly proud of what we have done. And now that historic education work will continue through the team at Fleetwood Museum on Queens Terrace."
Historic items from Jacinta will be donated to Fleetwood Museum and the Jacinta Trust are also in talks with Wyre Dock Development Group about their plans for a dockland heritage centre.
In 2020, Jacinta was dismantled on the trawler slipway of Fleetwood's historic fish dock and the scrap metal taken away in a convoy of lorries.