Fishing smacks first came to Fleetwood from Kirkcudbrightshire in the mid-1840's. After the foundation of ‘The Fleetwood Fishing Company’ in 1843, Robert Roskell stayed in Fleetwood and built on this initial success, also encouraging two larger deep-sea smacks from the West Country.  By 1855 the fleet had grown considerably and smacks were now being built at Fleetwood, Arnside, Glasson Dock, Lytham, Freckleton and Whitehaven. Thirty-two fishing boats were registered at Fleetwood in 1860 and thirty years later the port had around 60 deep-water smacks. Fleetwood’s smack fleet had peaked by the early 1890's and soon had to make way for the new steam trawlers.

A typical smack weighed between 35 and 40 gross tons and measured up to about 70 feet long. A smack fished using beam trawls and as these were very heavy compared to the size of the boat, a good wind was required to be able to tow the weight of the gear and trawl successfully. Smacksmen considered a “good wind” to be Force 6, a gale strength which would deter the majority of fishermen these days!

Onboard a Fleetwood smack would be four crew members and a boy, and they would all have worked extremely hard. At the end of the 19th century there were no shipping forecasts, navigation charts were hand sketched in a notebook, and steam winches were only fitted in 1900, so prior to this the trawl would have been winched in by hand! The earnings of each fishing trip were divided into 6½ shares; 2½ shares for the owners and a share each for the crew members. The boy would usually be paid a shilling but he might get an extra 6p if the trip was especially successful.

It was these first smacks that created the fishing industry at Fleetwood that would expand greatly over the next 100 years.

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