Willie Clavie

Interview with Willie Clavie

Year: C.1980s

Duration: 11:52

Filmed By: Jim Taylor

Willie ‘Clavie’ of Rosehearty speaks with Jim Taylor about his days on board the drifters of the herring fleet. He talks about how he started and progressed through the ranks within the industry, starting as a young teenager on a rowing boat catching cod and hauling creels. His days aboard steam drifters are also discussed and the living quarters where 10 men would sleep in the same cabin where either a ‘donkey’s breakfast’ (a bag stuffed with straw) or a bag stuffed with caff (chaff) from threshed corn was used as a mattress.