Fishing numbers

mclark

mclark

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Messages
95
Location
Ramsey, Isle of Man
www.white-heather-nobby.com
I want to paint the original fishing number on my 1904 herring lugger. I have tried making a stencil from lining paper and drawing the characters out freehand but am struggling to get them the right shape.

Can anyone suggest a computer typeface that would suit an Edwardian fishing boat number?

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Mike
 
Funnily enough, Times New Roman does not do the job as it was brought out in 1932 but it is said to have been designed by William Starling Burgess, no less, so it certainly has a sailing connection!

I dimly recall that many photos of Edwardian fishing boats show a heavily seriffed font. It would be worth prowling through a few books with pictures of luggers as they were at the time.
 
different areas, and even to a point different yards in scotland had their own 'font'

basically what ever the signwriter did. when he went the style changed

copperplate gothic is similar to a few that are serif fonts.

some examples from trying to work out what to use myself which might help:
number_fonts.jpg


too many years in design and advertising and I've got over 15000 fonts on my mac now!
if you want I can make a vector pdf up of whatever numbers you want as a template. (vector means you can scale it up as big as you like)
 
But take care you don't go willy-nilly adding fishing numbers to your boat if she is no longer registered as a fishing boat. I get the impression that people in the Deep South of England do this without much thought, but its not really right.

At the very least check that your old number is not in use by a modern boat.

Theoretically you should speak to your local Fishery Office, but in jobsworth UK that might open a can of worms best left closed. Maybe things are better in IoM.

You could put a thin red diagonal line through your number and be legal.

Or you could reverse the number - BF.494 becoming 494.BF, for example. For a short period around the turn of last century that was how the 2nd class boats were numbered in any case. And even a jobsworth could not accuse you of causing confusion by impersonating another fishing boat.

That's not much of a risk in any case - given the demise of the UK fishing fleet.

My apologies if you know all this.
 
JRMacGregor said:
But take care you don't go willy-nilly adding fishing numbers to your boat if she is no longer registered as a fishing boat. I get the impression that people in the Deep South of England do this without much thought, but its not really right.

At the very least check that your old number is not in use by a modern boat.

Theoretically you should speak to your local Fishery Office, but in jobsworth UK that might open a can of worms best left closed. Maybe things are better in IoM.

You could put a thin red diagonal line through your number and be legal.

Or you could reverse the number - BF.494 becoming 494.BF, for example. For a short period around the turn of last century that was how the 2nd class boats were numbered in any case. And even a jobsworth could not accuse you of causing confusion by impersonating another fishing boat.

That's not much of a risk in any case - given the demise of the UK fishing fleet.

My apologies if you know all this.
Click to expand...

Despite what local MCA jobsworths may tell you the regulations only make it an offence for a fishing vessel to carry numbers without being registered and the act specifically defines a 'fishing vessel' as a vessel currently engaged in fishing for profit (I can't remember the exact wording).

At various times my old boat was lettered with reversed numbers and defaced by a red line (at the period when it was possible to register as a 'historic fishing vessel'), both variants prompted queries as to their legality whereas the straightforward numbers she carried for the last 10 years or so were never questioned!

btw I used stencils based on blown up Times Roman font for both numbers and transom lettering which actually seemed to look better when enlarged than I expected.


A bit the worse for wear here after she was laid up:
DSC01346.jpg
 
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I was idly looking at the numbers stencilled on some old wagons on a preserved railway recently, and was trying to work out what it was about them that made them look "old".
I think the answer might be that they are a bit top-heavy - ie the same loop is bigger at the top than the bottom (eg in 8) and the strokes are thicker at the top.

It's an incredibly subtle business, and uncanny the way the right font immediately registers with people without them even noticing or being able to explain why. Look at the way wild west "Saloon" or "Wanted" fonts immediately put the reader into the right time frame.
 
typography is both an art and a science. Having the right typeface can make all the difference in the world

Garamond is a great font, and still works today for so many things. more amazing still is the fact it was designed by claude garamond in the 1400's

Railway typography is almost all variations of a font called Humanist aka Gill Sans, eric gill in the 1930's and still one of the most widely used fonts in the world

sorry turning into a closet typography anorak here, but so many of the fonts that are 'right' are anything but modern. design with pencils and paper, or in garamond case, a block of wood and chisel

as for the numbers you can still get a dipensation to display the numbers, as long as they are not in use elsewhere. I spoke to one of local fisheries guys up here a year or so about it and they aren't bothered. It obvious to them if you're fishing so don't bother with you
 
Thanks to all who responded

Special thanks to 'monkey trousers' who has very kindly helped me a lot (outside the forum) with this problem.

Thanks to all of you who responded and yes. I was planning to run a red line through the number.

I may post a photo when its all done and dusted.

Cheers

Mike
 
keep a roll of red insulation tape on board, if you see a fisheries patrol and are worried quicky lash a strip on!

they look much better without the line
 
Good link. That's one of the best examples of what people can get forced into up in Scotland. It is not the only one.

But then again - the greater number of working boats up here (until recent years) meant there WAS more chance of a decommissioned and numbered MFV being confused with a still working MFV. Also, a leisure boat using "his" number can be offensive to the working guy who has paid for his valid fishing registration. And I have seen thoughtless examples of this too. Many fishing families have tried to pass the same number from boat to boat down through the generations - and it can mean a lot to them.

Could be that the differences in regulatory approach are due to the differences in fisheries regulation each side of the border. The issue is the Fishery Officers and not the MCA.

In Scotland the fishery officers are separate from those in England - and have had their own "navy" (Scottish Fishery Protection Squadron) for many years. In England, fishery "protection" vessels come from the Royal Navy. I cannot remember the latest name for the government dept that "looks after" fisheries in England - was MAFF at one time - but I think they have managed to squeeze "environment" into the title now.

As for the Isle of Man - I don't know who you would need to contact to get to the equivalent of the Scotland and England Fishery Officers.
 
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OldFrank, If I was a Fisheries Jobsworth - which thank the Lord I`m not Sir - I would say that red line went round the numbers/letters and not through them. However if TamarMike is correct and "thin red diagonal line" keeps one legal, provided there is no definition of "thin", I cant see that one say 1/16th wide (continuous and through all the numbers/letters of course) would be unnecessarally intrusive. VITALBA
 
No problems with officialdom since re-commissioning in 1988. The owner of that particular registration number is still equipped to fish - and has a fifty foor beam trawl that hangs over the port side between the stern and shrouds. Part of the deal is that the fish cannot be sold. It takes about a week to set it all up - and I think I can safely describe it as extrremely dangerous - given the forces involved Life was cheaper then!
 
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