This story appeared in a series of articles by Forrest Frank in 1920 in the Scarborough Daily Post - This story came from Captain Wilson
When I was a lad, the fishing boats consisted chiefly of cobles that lined and trawled inshore, and yawls that lined on the off ground for cod and went after the herring in herring time. The coblemen sold their catches themselves by Dutch auction, starting at a high price and coming down, as the bidders starting from a low one advancedd till, when in the opinion of the fisherman a fair mean was reached, he cried: "Het!" (have it), and the bargain was made.
In addition to those who bought to supply the wants of the town with its growing company of fashionable visitors in the summer time, there were those with carts who attended regularly and went rounds far afield in the surrounding countryside. But a big trade was done in dried and salted fish for export. There was an old fishmonger, Cassey Boomer (Bulmer), who used to supply the mayor, and would walk along the cobles, inspect the catches, and take what he thought, saying: "Mayor Dues!" This custom was a survival, doubtless, of that which the carving on the old Town Hall at the back of the Newcastle Packet of the hand taking a fish from a fisherman's creel, typified.
Fish that could not be sold used to be landed on the steer to be taken away for manure, and I have sometimes seen 20 lasts of herrings piled there to be disposed of. I remember once Henry Wyrill (Captain John Wyrill's uncle) and Billy Appleby throwing out 17 lasts between them. Always there were tubs on the steer for the collection of fish livers, which an old man gathered for Tindall's and others, for the reception of offal, and the stink was horrible.
