Last Drifter, 2020: Yarmouth In Lockdown

Written for Crispina’s Crimson’s Creative Challenge.

She rests where cobblestones meet tide,
her green hull steady, mast held high ….
the last of Yarmouth’s herring fleet,
a hull that once knew silver seas
sits silent, holding memory.
The silos watch, the gulls pass by,
her bollard rope grown rust and stiff,
her decks closed to the curious eye
this pandemic spring, this empty drift.

Yet still the river keeps its work ….
small boats slip out at break of day,
lines cast where herring shoals once surged,
though nets and steam have had their say.
The trade is gone, the smoke has cleared,
but water calls the patient few,
and Lydia Eva, moored and still,
remembers what the fleet once knew.

NAR©2026

Nancy’s Notes: The Lydia Eva is the last surviving steam drifter of the herring fishing fleet based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Crispina tells us: “I lived just 2 minutes walk from the quay in 2020. The trawler Lydia Eva is permanently moored here, but though a museum it wasn’t open to the public that year. While our fishing industry died long years ago, private boats were and are available to hire for those who enjoy line-fishing.”

This is “Living In a Ghost Town” by the Rolling Stones (recorded remotely during lockdown)

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #097

^{Everything seen here was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}