Editing Well smack

{{Not to be confused with|Livewell}}
{{Short description|Traditional fishing boat in the United Kingdom}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}

[[File:Well smack sectional plan.jpg|thumb|320px|Sectional drawing of well smack<ref>Credit: NOAA [[National Marine Fisheries Service]]</ref>]]
A '''well smack''' was a type of [[traditional fishing boat]] in use in the [[United Kingdom]] and then the [[Faroe Islands]] between the late 18th century and around 1920. It had a [[Water well|well]] amidships. The well was filled with circulated external water, which kept fish alive until delivered to land and sold.  It was a modified form of a [[smack (ship)|fishing smack]].

==History==
Between roughly 1775 and 1875, "well smack" referred to a 50-foot [[gaff rig|gaff]] [[cutter (boat)|cutter]] used in long-lining for [[cod]], [[common ling|ling]], [[turbot]], and other bottom-living sea fish.<ref name="BrianCoadDictionary">{{cite web|url=http://www.briancoad.com/dictionary/W.htm|title=Briancoad.com|last=Coad|first=Brian W.|author2=Don E. McAllister |date=13 August 2009|work=Dictionary of Ichthyology|access-date=7 February 2010}}</ref>  These vessels were also known as [[cod fisheries|cod boats]]. From roughly 1875 to 1920, they were extended to make 80-foot gaff [[ketch]]es, sometimes by the cut-and-shut procedure.  Some were built as new 80-foot welled smacks; some were turned into dry ships for use with ice.<ref name="EdgarJMarchTrawlers">{{cite book|last=March|first=Edgar J.|title=Sailing Trawlers|year=1950}}</ref>

==Structure and usage==
[[File:Bateau capsizun2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Gaff rig|Gaff]] [[cutter (boat)|cutter]] rig]]
These smacks were heavy-hulled with a [[draft (hull)|draught]] of two [[fathom]]s. They were buoyant [[bow (ship)|fore]] and [[aft]], with the well contained [[Glossary of nautical terms (A-L)#amidships|amidships]].  Augur holes were drilled in the sides of the hull so that water could flow freely for re-oxygenation.  Fish placed in the well could then be carried upriver to market (from 1750 especially Billingsgate, [[London]]; from 1900 the [[Faroe Islands|Faroes]]) in fresh condition.<ref name="BrianCoadDictionary" /> The [[swim bladder]]s of the fish had to be pierced to prevent them from floating.  Turbot and other flatfish were suspended on thin rope to prevent them from clogging the augur holes. Crews considered these ships safe and stable, according to Faroes crewmen who remembered sailing in them before 1920.<ref name="EdgarJMarchTrawlers" /><ref name="BillingsgateAtFive">{{cite web|url=http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/billingsgate.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020304211826/http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/billingsgate.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2002|title=Angelfire.com|work=Billingsgate at five in the morning|access-date=7 February 2010}}</ref>

By about 1854, the [[River Thames|Thames]] was too polluted for use of welled smacks, and fishermen had to leave fish in floating cod boxes in the Thames estuary near [[Ipswich]]. Many fishermen moved out of Thames fishing ports such as [[Barking, London|Barking]], and went to the east coast, especially to [[Grimsby]] and [[Lowestoft]]. Some [[cod fisheries|cod boats]], including some welled smacks, did continue to fish out of Barking until around 1900.  However most continued to carry the [[Port of London]] [[home port|port-registration]] LO.<ref name="EdgarJMarchTrawlers" />

Until the 1870s, these smacks travelled from London to [[Iceland]] in summer, and returned via North Sea ports, including Holland.  From the 1870s, those converted to dry ketches were used in fleeting in the North Sea, especially in the Silver Pits. From 1900 to 1920, the last welled smacks were sold to the Faroe Islands.  The last welled smacks sank in the [[Faroes]] in about 1920.<ref name="EdgarJMarchTrawlers" />

==Marine archaeology and research==
[[File:Notre Dame de Rumengol (Gabare).jpg|thumb|[[Gaff rig|Gaff]] [[ketch]] rig]]
There is no way today of seeing or touching a [[United Kingdom|UK]] welled smack, apart from the drawings, and a fuzzy, distant photo or two, in [[Edgar J. March]]'s 1950 book.  There is no known film, photo of the deck, marine wreck site, or souvenir.  A welled smack should be easily identifiable at a wreck site from the unusually heavy hull-construction around the well. In the [[British Film Institute]] there may be one copy of a Faroese film of sou-westered fishermen on the rolling deck of a welled smack, pricking swim-bladders and placing the fish in the well—but it is not available to researchers for confirmation. In [[New England]], however, the ''[[Emma C. Berry (sloop)|Emma C. Berry]]'' survives.

==See also==
*[[Well-boat]]
*[[Corf]]
*On the coast of [[Pomerania]] (Germany, Poland) a similar vessel was known as [[:de:Quatze|Quatze (German Wikipedia)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Dempster, Henry. ''The Fisheries and Fishmarkets of Great Britain'', Edinburgh (1874)
* March, Edgar J. ''Sailing Trawlers'' (1950)
* March, Edgar J. ''Sailing Trawlers: The Story of Deep-Sea Fishing With Long Line and Trawl'', (David & Charles, 1970) {{ISBN|978-0-87742-004-0}}

==External links==
* [http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS50/LPS50_1993_39-50.pdf ''Following the fish to Grimsby''] by Margaret Gerrish, pdf file
* [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1302&dat=18851114&id=g1oQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OZMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2068,5614181 ''Welled Fishing Ketches''] by Bingatti, ''[[The Sydney Mail]]'', 14 November 1885
* [http://fishbull.noaa.gov/13-1/lawrence-hamilton.pdf ''Reforms and improvements suggested for the fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland''] by J. Lawrence-Hamilton (circa 1890), pdf file
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=jdQUAAAAQAAJ ''Memoir descriptive and explanatory''] by [[John Purdy (hydrographer)|John Purdy]] (London, Richard Holmes Laurie, 1820)
* [http://www.windjam.com/emmacberry/main.htm ''Emma C. Berry'' (1866), New England well smack]

==Image links==
* [http://www.3dships.eu/?page_id=421 Grimsby well smack model]
* [http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/great_london.html Barking and Dagenham coat of arms featuring well smack]
* [https://www.panoramio.com/photo/24384269 ''Emma C. Berry'' (1866), New England well smack]
* [http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/4-valence/highlights.html ''Saucy Jack'', Barking well smack] as measured, drawn and described by Edgar J. March in ''Sailing Trawlers'' (1950)
* [http://sutherlandshipmodels.com/Images/hh_glide.gif Model of well smack ''Glide'']

{{fishing vessel topics|state = collapsed}}
{{fisheries and fishing|state = collapsed}}
{{Sailing Vessels and Rigs|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Traditional sailboats]]
[[Category:Types of fishing vessels]]
[[Category:History of fishing]]