Trawlermen (2006) s01e02 Episode Script
The Storm
Tonight, the Peterhead fishing fleet battle to survive their worst winter storm yet.
James runs for the safety of port.
Jimmy risks all by staying at sea.
John faces financial ruin as he can't catch enough fish.
It's all in a day's work for the men who do the most dangerous Job in Britain.
100 miles from the safety of their home port of Peterhead, the prawn trawler Amity is threatened by a gathering storm.
Whoo whoo, hey, hey! (Laughing) This job's not dangerous.
This job's exciting.
Yee-ha! (Radio) Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties.
Cyclonic five to seven becoming north seven to severe Gale 9, perhaps storm ten later in the Forties.
Wintry showers, moderate (Narrator) After four days, Amity has caught virtually nothing.
Losing money and desperate for a catch, they're forced to fish in rough weather.
In these conditions, the smallest mistake could cause a serious accident, but it's a risk that skipper Jimmy Buchan feels he has to take.
It's a full Force 8 at the moment, probably even touching Force 9.
We shouldn't be shooting but this is the pressure that comes onto the skipper.
I've got to get the pay for my crew so it's a "gun to my head" kind of situation.
Watch yourself there, Kevin! The dangers of working in weather like this is if anything were to happen to a crewman it's getting the boat around to pick him up.
Because we've got gear on our stern and the boat just won't turn round 360 degrees.
Last year, nine fishermen died and 34 fishing boats were lost from the UK fleet.
For the first mate, Kevin, the risks are all too real.
Very dangerous craic this.
I remember fishing off Ireland once about ten, 12 years ago.
We were shooting herring nets and one of our friends got his legs caught in the net and he was took overboard.
By the time we got the boat around to fetch him he was gone.
Never to be found again.
One of the worst storms I was ever caught in was when I was not very long a skipper myself, very inexperienced then.
Foolishly, I stayed out and I was really scared.
And one thing that I have learned from that is how violent the sea can get.
The noise, the size of the waves I was powerless to do anything.
My thoughts were that I would never see home again.
The storm will severely disrupt the fishing.
So far, Amity hasn't even caught enough to cover the boat's running costs.
Very poor haul.
We're looking to start making money.
We've over 200 boxes aboard the boat.
We're a long way from that yet.
150 miles away, out of reach of the storm, another boat, Ocean Venture, is hunting for haddock.
The boat is skippered by John Buchan, who is in as a crew of five, including deckhands Alan and Jonathan.
They've been at sea for three days and so far they've avoided any rough weather.
But they haven't been catching enough to make their trip pay.
Perhaps now their luck will change.
It's a disaster.
No fish at all.
And the net's in bits.
We don't eat very much, so you're all right.
They carry spare nets for Just this situation.
A boat always has to have a net in the water or they waste the limited days the government allows them to fish at sea.
The crew must repair the torn net before this one is hauled, in case it's also damaged.
Jonathan gets out his net needle to mend the hole.
It's actually quite bad.
The belly of the net is torn and the wing.
It should be two or three hours mending this time.
0ne of the worst things about going fishing is standing mending nets all day.
This haul has only filled nine boxes of fish.
The crew are having mutinous thoughts.
Nobody likes the skipper.
All the deckies are always calling him names when he's not here and I wouldn't like to be the skipper.
I chose to come here.
It was my decision.
As it is, so far we haven't been very successful.
So the buck stops here.
I'm to blame.
One of the newest prawn boats in the Peterhead fleet is Fruitful Bough.
She's a state-of-the-art fishing boat that was built two years ago at a cost of £1.
5 million.
The proud owners are the West family and on board are the three young West brothers, the latest generation in a local fishing dynasty.
During the last three days the fishing has been good and they're filling their fish hold fast.
The youngest of the brothers is 21-year-old Andrew, who's been at sea for Just three months.
God knows what I'm going to do with that.
I'll just wait and see if I can get a bottom of a box to put it in.
24-year-old Robert is the second brother and first mate.
To come in with all your boxes full is a really good feeling.
It's got to be one of the best things about being at sea.
In charge of the boat is the eldest brother, James.
At Just 29 years old he's one of the youngest skippers in the UK.
His run of good luck is now threatened.
He's in the path of a storm.
This low pressure here's going to move into the area where we're at just now and we'll get 40 or 50 miles an hour.
That kind of weather is probably too much for a boat for us.
So if it comes our way we might end up in Lerwick or something.
With the storm bearing down on him, James needs to make a decision about where to take the boat.
He'd prefer to go home to Peterhead, but the closest port is Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.
He needs to get his catch to market before it spoils.
So he uses his satellite phone to ask his fish buyer, Steven Mowat, for advice.
The only thing I'm worried about doing this is getting stuck in Lerwick and I cannae get back out.
I think you're better clearing your feet because you're going to be in the right position before the other boats.
Right.
OK.
I'm nae going to want to change my mind any more.
But I'll be in probably about midnight tonight.
- All right, man.
- Right.
Thank you.
Bye.
The Fruitful Bough's probably around here about 50 miles off Shetland.
The weather is getting worse tonight, so they're going to head towards Lerwick and that puts them in a perfect position to get back out in amongst this stuff again maybe Saturday night, maybe Sunday.
So when all the boats are in here, he'll be getting back out and hopefully tides will be suitable and he'll start filling his boots with prawns.
As the weather closes in, James orders the crew to bring in the nets.
This is Andrew's first big storm and he's loving it.
In stormy weather there's a real danger of being hit by a massive wave, known in the trade as a "lump of water".
Anything can happen.
Big lumps of water can hopefully Well, not hopefully, but you might see some big lumps of water come in and take an old man like Willie right off his feet.
Woo-hoo! I've never been hit by a lump of water yet, but this is about as bad as it's been for me in the water so far.
It's single-ended! Single-ended! One of the wires holding the nets has been snapped by the heavy seas.
The whole net's just single-ended.
That means one of the wires has broken.
With a broken wire, the crew can't bring in the nets, which could get caught in the propeller.
James stops the engine.
Without power, the high winds are blowing him dangerously close to a nearby boat.
There's a boat just really close by us just now.
It's quite It's less easy to manoeuvre the boat while the nets is over the side, so there's a little bit of hassle by the boat being too close to us.
If the crew don't get the nets out of the water fast enough, the two boats could collide.
With the nets on board, James gets Fruitful Bough to safety, away from the other fishing boat.
My first concern there is just to get everybody to stand clear.
When you see it was broken, it didnae look too bad.
They were going to get it back.
Everybody was watching what they were doing.
Don't go saying I'm scared.
Wisen up.
It's just all in a day's work.
Easy! Easy! (Radio) Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties.
North or northwest Gale 9 to Storm 10.
Squally wintry showers.
Moderate (Narrator) As Fruitful Bough steams to safety in Lerwick, Amity is heading into the storm.
At only 19 metres, she's Just a little longer than an articulated lorry, a tiny speck in the turbulent seas.
As winds reach 60 miles per hour, skipper Jimmy knows how vulnerable his boat is to the approaching storm.
In a Force 10 you'll probably get 12- to 15-, 18-metre high waves.
0ne of them is like a tenement building coming at you.
Right now I've got a big knot in my stomach because one half of me wants to stay out and the other half's saying, "You'd better get your backside off the sea.
" I think we'll call the crew out shortly and We'll start her on anyway.
We'll start to head for home.
Jimmy is prepared to take the boat home, even though they've caught very little.
Their poor catch will barely cover the cost of fuel, leaving almost nothing for the crew.
0K, boys.
0K.
Tea-o, tea-o, tea-o.
Tea-o, tea-o, tea-o.
Boys, I've just seen a shipping forecast and it's nae a good forecast, it's Force 10.
I'm nae happy with the situation.
I think we're just going to haul up and start heading in a bit.
0ur bad luck has stayed with us for another few days, I'm afraid, eh? It's looking like it, Kevin.
- But, hey - It's a long year.
It is.
There's always next week.
There's always next month.
We don't usually run home but If it's a day and a half bad out here it's not worth tumbling and rocking for a day and a half.
We'll just have to go home.
The only thing is we're not getting paid for all this.
So it's a bit of a bummer.
It's a message from my wife asking me what I'm doing.
The message reads, "I hear there is a storm on its way.
What are you doing? "Are you going to stick it out or will you be in? Kiss-kiss.
" The only good bit about that is the kiss-kiss.
I wish I was at home right now and getting kiss-kiss.
200 miles away on Ocean Venture, it's time for another haul.
Skipper John has the Job of waking up his crew, starting with deckhands, Alan Wakey-wakey, Dave.
Tea-o.
Wakey-wakey, Alan.
and Jonathan.
0h.
I dinnae want to get up.
Leave me alone.
Getting out of bed four times a day.
You've got rain on your face, snow on your face, it's freezing, you're just out of bed.
It's like somebody's thrown a bucket of cold water in your face to get you up and I'm not a fan of that at all.
I don't know anybody that's a fan of that.
Sometimes I don't know why I do this job.
It's like self-punishment.
- Let's get it on! - Yeah.
Let's get it on.
Ocean Venture has only filled 300 out of a thousand boxes.
The pressure's on to get a really good haul.
I like to see what's coming on board.
Plus it gives the lads a hand as well.
Ah, nae again.
It got screwed up.
There's too much strain on the electrics and it's cut out the hydraulic pumps.
I'll go and switch everything back on again to lift the fish over.
The haul's not very good.
The haul is hugely disappointing and will only fill ten boxes.
But there's a reason for it, the net's been torn on the ocean floor.
Once again, it's up to Jonathan and Alan to mend it.
It just tore the belly of the net.
We should be able to make it, half an hour.
All the time in the world, boys.
You take your time.
- (Laughter) - Just take your time, boys.
Can we go in for a coffee? As you can see, I'm a very patient man.
John has been very patient when the cameras have been here! With the net mended, the crew have to deal with the few fish they have caught.
Most of them need to be gutted, by hand for the bigger fish and by gutting machine for the smaller ones, before they're washed in fresh water ready for packing.
People don't appreciate actually what you have to do to get fish on their plate.
They just think you go into a shop and buy it.
They think that all fishermen come out here, throw your nets in the water for five minutes, and you catch a fearsome lot of fish.
And you go home, unload it, plenty of money.
That's not the case at all.
In the galley, Tucker, the cook, is making their favourite meal.
Mince and tatties.
You cannae beat it.
Life on Ocean Venture is a relentless round of eat-sleep-fish, eat-sleep-fish.
These young lads don't know what work is.
When I started to sea, it was an open deck, gales of wind, hauling along an open deck.
Everything had to be done by hand.
Hauling down fish a basket at a time and hanging on for dear life.
These lads don't know what work is.
If the conveyor belt breaks down they think they're hard done by.
That's fair enough you saying that, right enough, but then they were getting paid three times as much as we're getting paid now, spending more time at home for bad weather.
I started at sea on eight pound eight pound per week.
(Laughs) There's nothing normal about this.
There's no' another job like this.
Not in the world.
0h.
Time to get some precious sleep.
With another poor haul, John has to find inspiration from somewhere to fill the hold.
With the storm on her tail, the three brothers on Fruitful Bough are running to port.
James the skipper is at the helm.
We're just approaching up into Lerwick, just in Shetland here.
Called Harbour Control and we're going to moor up for the night.
Lerwick is the northernmost town in Great Britain and has provided a refuge for fishermen for more than 600 years.
It's a change so we'll get a nice sleep tonight, I suppose.
We spent the last three days catching fish out of the sea and we've just spent some of our pay buying it instead.
Disaster.
Waste of money, paying for it instead.
We've just had a haddock supper each and that was What was that? £16 or something? 16 quid.
- £16 for four fish.
- For four fish.
If we sold them for the same price as the fish shops Worth a lot of money.
We don't catch the potatoes.
We cannae make our own fish suppers.
We've got to buy potatoes.
(Andrew) That's me.
Fastest eater on the boat.
(James) Pity he wasn't the fastest worker.
Aye! Before Amity can head for the safety of home, Jimmy and his crew have to get the nets on board.
First mate Kevin has to lead the crew out onto the stormy deck.
(Kevin) It's just part of the job.
You just have to take every day as it comes.
Take the good weather with the bad weather.
As long as we get home safely, see our family we'll be all happy.
In conditions like these the crew could easily be washed overboard.
The water is so cold that survival time is counted in minutes.
Skipper Jimmy keeps a close eye on his men.
What's most important It's the crew I'm worried about.
It's 0K for me.
I'm up here on my feet, dry.
I've got to worry about the four men down there.
With the nets hauled, the gear must be tied down to withstand the Journey home.
I'm telling the crew now to stow the doors, tie the nets down so nothing can move because there's water going to be everywhere.
That's everything all tightened down now so we're just ready to steam now and take it easy till we've finished working with our prawns.
It's Just Jimmy's luck that now is the time he gets a good catch.
The prawns are good prawns.
Fisherman's last famous words "If only there were some more.
" Enough is never enough.
Dougie the cook can't believe it.
It's just typical.
When the weather comes down, you get a half decent haul.
The boat is travelling at nine miles an hour, but she's heading straight into the wind and the storm's too strong.
Amity is effectively treading water.
The weather's quite bad now and after an hour and a half we've only gone three mile.
For me to get from here to here, which is about 120 miles, it's probably going to take about 24 hours.
So we'll be arriving here when the forecast has decreased and we've all the way back to come.
I'm here to ride out the storm tonight.
Jimmy tells the crew of the change in plan.
We're going to stop and dodge.
The weather's too bad.
She's making too poor a passage.
So I think it's a wiser move just to put our head to wind all night and ride out the storm.
All the boys looking forward to going home.
You've upset them again.
Well, but I think it's more sensible just to hang around and see if we get a chance in the morning.
Thinking he was going home, Kevin had put off mending the nets.
He now has to brave the storm in case they can fish tomorrow.
I'd better not tell Jimmy about these big holes.
He won't be very happy about it.
I might tell him tomorrow if he's in a good mood.
That's all ready for the water again tomorrow.
We hope it'll be a better day.
We'll have to start catching some prawns now.
The best place for the crew to ride out the storm is in their bunks.
Good night, BBC.
Good night, boys.
But Jimmy won't sleep.
He takes the watch and waits anxiously for the storm to pass.
In Lerwick, James is landing his catch which will be sent on to Peterhead.
He's hoping his prawns will sell for around £5,000.
They've only got a shelf life of probably once they're catched up to about seven days.
So the faster we can get them landed That's why I'm landing just now, so I can make a fresh start and I dinnae have to worry about these prawns going off or anything.
With the catch banked, there's no hanging around.
James prepares to go straight back to sea.
I'm going out the south entrance.
0ver.
(Phone) That's fine.
Carry on.
0K.
Thanks again.
I'll hear you later.
The storm has passed but they're still expecting a rough ride.
Just away to make way.
It's going to be quite windy still, gusting to about 35 miles an hour, so until we get the boat all sealed up, batten the hatches down Get the boat as watertight as possible.
While the West brothers are having a profitable trip, John, the skipper of Ocean Venture, isn't catching enough.
Four days into their trip the crew's morale is at an all-time low.
In the wheelhouse, John has decided there's only one course of action open.
He must take his crew west, to some of the most volatile and unpredictable seas in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is where we're going.
The edge.
50, 60 miles west of Shetland.
There's nothing between America and Shetland.
We're out in the Atlantic where the weather can be very bad.
There's a lot of big swell gets up there, very quick, because there's nothing between Shetland and America.
Just thousands of miles of open sea.
So when the sea gets up it doesn't take long before you have big, mountainous waves.
It's a gamble, but we'll take the gamble and see if it comes off, hopefully.
Having set the boat on course for the deep waters of the North Atlantic, John has to tell the crew what he's planning.
Aye, it'll be all right.
Going into deep water means that all the gear must be checked to make sure it's in perfect condition.
They'll be fishing to depths of 700 metres, where the pressure is 70 times greater than it is at sea level.
The existing net floats have to be changed as they won't survive at those depths.
There's an awful lot of pressure down at 350 fathoms.
If we don't have on the right sort of floats they'll just explode.
When you haul the net, you won't have any floats left.
John has to win back the confidence of his crew.
Having failed to find haddock, he's now looking for precious Greenland halibut.
He's risking all in savage seas for a big catch to prove to his crew that he has what it takes to be their skipper.
Tomorrow on Trawlermen Can John find the perfect catch and regain the trust of his crew? That's what counts.
James on Fruitful Bough finds himself surrounded by some stiff competition.
After coming through the storm, Jimmy starts his hunt for the elusive prawn.
James runs for the safety of port.
Jimmy risks all by staying at sea.
John faces financial ruin as he can't catch enough fish.
It's all in a day's work for the men who do the most dangerous Job in Britain.
100 miles from the safety of their home port of Peterhead, the prawn trawler Amity is threatened by a gathering storm.
Whoo whoo, hey, hey! (Laughing) This job's not dangerous.
This job's exciting.
Yee-ha! (Radio) Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties.
Cyclonic five to seven becoming north seven to severe Gale 9, perhaps storm ten later in the Forties.
Wintry showers, moderate (Narrator) After four days, Amity has caught virtually nothing.
Losing money and desperate for a catch, they're forced to fish in rough weather.
In these conditions, the smallest mistake could cause a serious accident, but it's a risk that skipper Jimmy Buchan feels he has to take.
It's a full Force 8 at the moment, probably even touching Force 9.
We shouldn't be shooting but this is the pressure that comes onto the skipper.
I've got to get the pay for my crew so it's a "gun to my head" kind of situation.
Watch yourself there, Kevin! The dangers of working in weather like this is if anything were to happen to a crewman it's getting the boat around to pick him up.
Because we've got gear on our stern and the boat just won't turn round 360 degrees.
Last year, nine fishermen died and 34 fishing boats were lost from the UK fleet.
For the first mate, Kevin, the risks are all too real.
Very dangerous craic this.
I remember fishing off Ireland once about ten, 12 years ago.
We were shooting herring nets and one of our friends got his legs caught in the net and he was took overboard.
By the time we got the boat around to fetch him he was gone.
Never to be found again.
One of the worst storms I was ever caught in was when I was not very long a skipper myself, very inexperienced then.
Foolishly, I stayed out and I was really scared.
And one thing that I have learned from that is how violent the sea can get.
The noise, the size of the waves I was powerless to do anything.
My thoughts were that I would never see home again.
The storm will severely disrupt the fishing.
So far, Amity hasn't even caught enough to cover the boat's running costs.
Very poor haul.
We're looking to start making money.
We've over 200 boxes aboard the boat.
We're a long way from that yet.
150 miles away, out of reach of the storm, another boat, Ocean Venture, is hunting for haddock.
The boat is skippered by John Buchan, who is in as a crew of five, including deckhands Alan and Jonathan.
They've been at sea for three days and so far they've avoided any rough weather.
But they haven't been catching enough to make their trip pay.
Perhaps now their luck will change.
It's a disaster.
No fish at all.
And the net's in bits.
We don't eat very much, so you're all right.
They carry spare nets for Just this situation.
A boat always has to have a net in the water or they waste the limited days the government allows them to fish at sea.
The crew must repair the torn net before this one is hauled, in case it's also damaged.
Jonathan gets out his net needle to mend the hole.
It's actually quite bad.
The belly of the net is torn and the wing.
It should be two or three hours mending this time.
0ne of the worst things about going fishing is standing mending nets all day.
This haul has only filled nine boxes of fish.
The crew are having mutinous thoughts.
Nobody likes the skipper.
All the deckies are always calling him names when he's not here and I wouldn't like to be the skipper.
I chose to come here.
It was my decision.
As it is, so far we haven't been very successful.
So the buck stops here.
I'm to blame.
One of the newest prawn boats in the Peterhead fleet is Fruitful Bough.
She's a state-of-the-art fishing boat that was built two years ago at a cost of £1.
5 million.
The proud owners are the West family and on board are the three young West brothers, the latest generation in a local fishing dynasty.
During the last three days the fishing has been good and they're filling their fish hold fast.
The youngest of the brothers is 21-year-old Andrew, who's been at sea for Just three months.
God knows what I'm going to do with that.
I'll just wait and see if I can get a bottom of a box to put it in.
24-year-old Robert is the second brother and first mate.
To come in with all your boxes full is a really good feeling.
It's got to be one of the best things about being at sea.
In charge of the boat is the eldest brother, James.
At Just 29 years old he's one of the youngest skippers in the UK.
His run of good luck is now threatened.
He's in the path of a storm.
This low pressure here's going to move into the area where we're at just now and we'll get 40 or 50 miles an hour.
That kind of weather is probably too much for a boat for us.
So if it comes our way we might end up in Lerwick or something.
With the storm bearing down on him, James needs to make a decision about where to take the boat.
He'd prefer to go home to Peterhead, but the closest port is Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.
He needs to get his catch to market before it spoils.
So he uses his satellite phone to ask his fish buyer, Steven Mowat, for advice.
The only thing I'm worried about doing this is getting stuck in Lerwick and I cannae get back out.
I think you're better clearing your feet because you're going to be in the right position before the other boats.
Right.
OK.
I'm nae going to want to change my mind any more.
But I'll be in probably about midnight tonight.
- All right, man.
- Right.
Thank you.
Bye.
The Fruitful Bough's probably around here about 50 miles off Shetland.
The weather is getting worse tonight, so they're going to head towards Lerwick and that puts them in a perfect position to get back out in amongst this stuff again maybe Saturday night, maybe Sunday.
So when all the boats are in here, he'll be getting back out and hopefully tides will be suitable and he'll start filling his boots with prawns.
As the weather closes in, James orders the crew to bring in the nets.
This is Andrew's first big storm and he's loving it.
In stormy weather there's a real danger of being hit by a massive wave, known in the trade as a "lump of water".
Anything can happen.
Big lumps of water can hopefully Well, not hopefully, but you might see some big lumps of water come in and take an old man like Willie right off his feet.
Woo-hoo! I've never been hit by a lump of water yet, but this is about as bad as it's been for me in the water so far.
It's single-ended! Single-ended! One of the wires holding the nets has been snapped by the heavy seas.
The whole net's just single-ended.
That means one of the wires has broken.
With a broken wire, the crew can't bring in the nets, which could get caught in the propeller.
James stops the engine.
Without power, the high winds are blowing him dangerously close to a nearby boat.
There's a boat just really close by us just now.
It's quite It's less easy to manoeuvre the boat while the nets is over the side, so there's a little bit of hassle by the boat being too close to us.
If the crew don't get the nets out of the water fast enough, the two boats could collide.
With the nets on board, James gets Fruitful Bough to safety, away from the other fishing boat.
My first concern there is just to get everybody to stand clear.
When you see it was broken, it didnae look too bad.
They were going to get it back.
Everybody was watching what they were doing.
Don't go saying I'm scared.
Wisen up.
It's just all in a day's work.
Easy! Easy! (Radio) Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties.
North or northwest Gale 9 to Storm 10.
Squally wintry showers.
Moderate (Narrator) As Fruitful Bough steams to safety in Lerwick, Amity is heading into the storm.
At only 19 metres, she's Just a little longer than an articulated lorry, a tiny speck in the turbulent seas.
As winds reach 60 miles per hour, skipper Jimmy knows how vulnerable his boat is to the approaching storm.
In a Force 10 you'll probably get 12- to 15-, 18-metre high waves.
0ne of them is like a tenement building coming at you.
Right now I've got a big knot in my stomach because one half of me wants to stay out and the other half's saying, "You'd better get your backside off the sea.
" I think we'll call the crew out shortly and We'll start her on anyway.
We'll start to head for home.
Jimmy is prepared to take the boat home, even though they've caught very little.
Their poor catch will barely cover the cost of fuel, leaving almost nothing for the crew.
0K, boys.
0K.
Tea-o, tea-o, tea-o.
Tea-o, tea-o, tea-o.
Boys, I've just seen a shipping forecast and it's nae a good forecast, it's Force 10.
I'm nae happy with the situation.
I think we're just going to haul up and start heading in a bit.
0ur bad luck has stayed with us for another few days, I'm afraid, eh? It's looking like it, Kevin.
- But, hey - It's a long year.
It is.
There's always next week.
There's always next month.
We don't usually run home but If it's a day and a half bad out here it's not worth tumbling and rocking for a day and a half.
We'll just have to go home.
The only thing is we're not getting paid for all this.
So it's a bit of a bummer.
It's a message from my wife asking me what I'm doing.
The message reads, "I hear there is a storm on its way.
What are you doing? "Are you going to stick it out or will you be in? Kiss-kiss.
" The only good bit about that is the kiss-kiss.
I wish I was at home right now and getting kiss-kiss.
200 miles away on Ocean Venture, it's time for another haul.
Skipper John has the Job of waking up his crew, starting with deckhands, Alan Wakey-wakey, Dave.
Tea-o.
Wakey-wakey, Alan.
and Jonathan.
0h.
I dinnae want to get up.
Leave me alone.
Getting out of bed four times a day.
You've got rain on your face, snow on your face, it's freezing, you're just out of bed.
It's like somebody's thrown a bucket of cold water in your face to get you up and I'm not a fan of that at all.
I don't know anybody that's a fan of that.
Sometimes I don't know why I do this job.
It's like self-punishment.
- Let's get it on! - Yeah.
Let's get it on.
Ocean Venture has only filled 300 out of a thousand boxes.
The pressure's on to get a really good haul.
I like to see what's coming on board.
Plus it gives the lads a hand as well.
Ah, nae again.
It got screwed up.
There's too much strain on the electrics and it's cut out the hydraulic pumps.
I'll go and switch everything back on again to lift the fish over.
The haul's not very good.
The haul is hugely disappointing and will only fill ten boxes.
But there's a reason for it, the net's been torn on the ocean floor.
Once again, it's up to Jonathan and Alan to mend it.
It just tore the belly of the net.
We should be able to make it, half an hour.
All the time in the world, boys.
You take your time.
- (Laughter) - Just take your time, boys.
Can we go in for a coffee? As you can see, I'm a very patient man.
John has been very patient when the cameras have been here! With the net mended, the crew have to deal with the few fish they have caught.
Most of them need to be gutted, by hand for the bigger fish and by gutting machine for the smaller ones, before they're washed in fresh water ready for packing.
People don't appreciate actually what you have to do to get fish on their plate.
They just think you go into a shop and buy it.
They think that all fishermen come out here, throw your nets in the water for five minutes, and you catch a fearsome lot of fish.
And you go home, unload it, plenty of money.
That's not the case at all.
In the galley, Tucker, the cook, is making their favourite meal.
Mince and tatties.
You cannae beat it.
Life on Ocean Venture is a relentless round of eat-sleep-fish, eat-sleep-fish.
These young lads don't know what work is.
When I started to sea, it was an open deck, gales of wind, hauling along an open deck.
Everything had to be done by hand.
Hauling down fish a basket at a time and hanging on for dear life.
These lads don't know what work is.
If the conveyor belt breaks down they think they're hard done by.
That's fair enough you saying that, right enough, but then they were getting paid three times as much as we're getting paid now, spending more time at home for bad weather.
I started at sea on eight pound eight pound per week.
(Laughs) There's nothing normal about this.
There's no' another job like this.
Not in the world.
0h.
Time to get some precious sleep.
With another poor haul, John has to find inspiration from somewhere to fill the hold.
With the storm on her tail, the three brothers on Fruitful Bough are running to port.
James the skipper is at the helm.
We're just approaching up into Lerwick, just in Shetland here.
Called Harbour Control and we're going to moor up for the night.
Lerwick is the northernmost town in Great Britain and has provided a refuge for fishermen for more than 600 years.
It's a change so we'll get a nice sleep tonight, I suppose.
We spent the last three days catching fish out of the sea and we've just spent some of our pay buying it instead.
Disaster.
Waste of money, paying for it instead.
We've just had a haddock supper each and that was What was that? £16 or something? 16 quid.
- £16 for four fish.
- For four fish.
If we sold them for the same price as the fish shops Worth a lot of money.
We don't catch the potatoes.
We cannae make our own fish suppers.
We've got to buy potatoes.
(Andrew) That's me.
Fastest eater on the boat.
(James) Pity he wasn't the fastest worker.
Aye! Before Amity can head for the safety of home, Jimmy and his crew have to get the nets on board.
First mate Kevin has to lead the crew out onto the stormy deck.
(Kevin) It's just part of the job.
You just have to take every day as it comes.
Take the good weather with the bad weather.
As long as we get home safely, see our family we'll be all happy.
In conditions like these the crew could easily be washed overboard.
The water is so cold that survival time is counted in minutes.
Skipper Jimmy keeps a close eye on his men.
What's most important It's the crew I'm worried about.
It's 0K for me.
I'm up here on my feet, dry.
I've got to worry about the four men down there.
With the nets hauled, the gear must be tied down to withstand the Journey home.
I'm telling the crew now to stow the doors, tie the nets down so nothing can move because there's water going to be everywhere.
That's everything all tightened down now so we're just ready to steam now and take it easy till we've finished working with our prawns.
It's Just Jimmy's luck that now is the time he gets a good catch.
The prawns are good prawns.
Fisherman's last famous words "If only there were some more.
" Enough is never enough.
Dougie the cook can't believe it.
It's just typical.
When the weather comes down, you get a half decent haul.
The boat is travelling at nine miles an hour, but she's heading straight into the wind and the storm's too strong.
Amity is effectively treading water.
The weather's quite bad now and after an hour and a half we've only gone three mile.
For me to get from here to here, which is about 120 miles, it's probably going to take about 24 hours.
So we'll be arriving here when the forecast has decreased and we've all the way back to come.
I'm here to ride out the storm tonight.
Jimmy tells the crew of the change in plan.
We're going to stop and dodge.
The weather's too bad.
She's making too poor a passage.
So I think it's a wiser move just to put our head to wind all night and ride out the storm.
All the boys looking forward to going home.
You've upset them again.
Well, but I think it's more sensible just to hang around and see if we get a chance in the morning.
Thinking he was going home, Kevin had put off mending the nets.
He now has to brave the storm in case they can fish tomorrow.
I'd better not tell Jimmy about these big holes.
He won't be very happy about it.
I might tell him tomorrow if he's in a good mood.
That's all ready for the water again tomorrow.
We hope it'll be a better day.
We'll have to start catching some prawns now.
The best place for the crew to ride out the storm is in their bunks.
Good night, BBC.
Good night, boys.
But Jimmy won't sleep.
He takes the watch and waits anxiously for the storm to pass.
In Lerwick, James is landing his catch which will be sent on to Peterhead.
He's hoping his prawns will sell for around £5,000.
They've only got a shelf life of probably once they're catched up to about seven days.
So the faster we can get them landed That's why I'm landing just now, so I can make a fresh start and I dinnae have to worry about these prawns going off or anything.
With the catch banked, there's no hanging around.
James prepares to go straight back to sea.
I'm going out the south entrance.
0ver.
(Phone) That's fine.
Carry on.
0K.
Thanks again.
I'll hear you later.
The storm has passed but they're still expecting a rough ride.
Just away to make way.
It's going to be quite windy still, gusting to about 35 miles an hour, so until we get the boat all sealed up, batten the hatches down Get the boat as watertight as possible.
While the West brothers are having a profitable trip, John, the skipper of Ocean Venture, isn't catching enough.
Four days into their trip the crew's morale is at an all-time low.
In the wheelhouse, John has decided there's only one course of action open.
He must take his crew west, to some of the most volatile and unpredictable seas in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is where we're going.
The edge.
50, 60 miles west of Shetland.
There's nothing between America and Shetland.
We're out in the Atlantic where the weather can be very bad.
There's a lot of big swell gets up there, very quick, because there's nothing between Shetland and America.
Just thousands of miles of open sea.
So when the sea gets up it doesn't take long before you have big, mountainous waves.
It's a gamble, but we'll take the gamble and see if it comes off, hopefully.
Having set the boat on course for the deep waters of the North Atlantic, John has to tell the crew what he's planning.
Aye, it'll be all right.
Going into deep water means that all the gear must be checked to make sure it's in perfect condition.
They'll be fishing to depths of 700 metres, where the pressure is 70 times greater than it is at sea level.
The existing net floats have to be changed as they won't survive at those depths.
There's an awful lot of pressure down at 350 fathoms.
If we don't have on the right sort of floats they'll just explode.
When you haul the net, you won't have any floats left.
John has to win back the confidence of his crew.
Having failed to find haddock, he's now looking for precious Greenland halibut.
He's risking all in savage seas for a big catch to prove to his crew that he has what it takes to be their skipper.
Tomorrow on Trawlermen Can John find the perfect catch and regain the trust of his crew? That's what counts.
James on Fruitful Bough finds himself surrounded by some stiff competition.
After coming through the storm, Jimmy starts his hunt for the elusive prawn.