Scarborough's fishing industry goes back hundreds of years to a time when fishermen paid tythes to the local friarage. The famous song 'Scarborough Fair' is all about the herring catch that took place in August every year as huge shoals of herring swam along this coast. In the 1930s-1950s bluefin tuna, known locally as tunny fish, also swam here eating the herring.
The Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre has a collection of over 50,000 photographs of boats, trawlers and ships of all shapes and sizes. The photographs were collected and donated to us by Mr George Coull of Aberdeen and Mr George Scales of Scarborough. They have been digistised by our volunteers. The galleries on this website contain a small sample of the collection so if you do not find the vessel you are looking for please contact us.