Fleetwood was once the premier deep water fishing port in the UK. It's commercial boats regularly fished as far afield as Iceland. Then the cod wars of the 1970's brought in a whole new situation marking the decline of the port as a commercial entity.
Ben was a true character, also a member of the RNLI and coxswain of the Fleetwood lifeboat if I remember correctly.
We used to catch cod that looked perfect form the outside but were full of 'growths' like cancer on the inside.
theproteus124 2 days ago