I was at school the afternoon of 29 November 1897, when the town was flooded by the sea, and men were rowing boats in the High Street.
It must have taken a week to drain the water back to the Thames estuary, and of course the schools were closed. My parents’ home was flooded, and my father, a fisherman from the age of 12, was busy caring for his 12ft long rowing boat used to reach his 40ft fishing cutter.
What days they were in a little compact town of about five thousand population. Tide time would start at 1 a.m. and get a little later each day, until mid-day when the fleet would return at about 9 p.m. and after about three hours sleep, start the set of tides all over again.
We wore leather sea boots, reaching above the knees, and to make them last, their soles were reinforced with another leather sole, and in it was driven a suitable quantity of galvanized hobnails.
My father would say in those days that if he could earn not less than £50 a year he was quite content.
He was a good father, and fitted me out with all the comforts of a fisherman’s clothing. Those new sea boots cost him £2, a sou’wester hat was one shilling and sixpence.
I do not know what my oil-coat cost, but there were many dressmakers and a few tailoresses who took work in.
A fisherman’s raincoat would be made by one of these tailoresses of unbleached calico with an inner lining of the same material.
My mother knitted me two pairs of sea-boot stockings and two jerseys from a wool called Abb, and the jerseys weighed 3lbs. each.
With woollen underclothes and two pairs of naval serge trousers the start of my working life must have been quite expensive.
R. D. Dale
80 Nelson Road
Whitstable
