Livet i Buckie: et glimt
a glimpse of life in Buckie
It is doubtful whether one can call this town a Scottish town any longer.
In March of 1944, Norsk Tidend, sent a reporter to Buckie to describe how life was in the town for the Norwegian community. The town itself was not named which was the standard approach during the war because of Ministry of Information censorship about identifying locations more widely. However, virtually every reader of Norsk Tidend knew it was Buckie.
Many foreigners have come to this town during the war. Not only Norwegians, but also quite a number of Danes and Swedes too have brought their fishing craft here including men who used to use the port before the war. There is also one Polish vessel, but it was a former pleasure boat and is hardly sturdy enough to compete with those fishing boats which were built to fish in the North Sea.
In the streets, you will find Norwegian children playing, in the shops, Norwegian women shopping and then in the pubs, Norwegian, Danes and Swedes arguing about the perpetual problems of brother nations, a subject which they never appear to solve to satisfaction. And if you down to the quay, you will be sure to see men with their hands deep in their pockets, spitting into the sea, you can be certain that learned that art of the fishing quays of Bergen or Ålesund.
You get the North Sea wind in your face like a clenched fist because there are no protecting skerries, no broad-shouldered mountains to take the force of the weather, only naked and defenceless hand. And you never need bellows to make a draught for the open fires in the solid stone houses.
A thirty feet high wall protects the harbour where the fishing boats huddle together like freezing birds. But not event the wall will prevent the sea from coming over when it is in the mood. Sometimes these seas will even take a house or two with them and it sometimes looks as though it will swallow the whole town.
There are Norwegians in this town who have fished in the Arctic seas on the halibut banks off Greenland and even some of Norway's best whale gunners are now putting all their experience into the hunting of cod and haddock. They all agree, however, that it is much harder and more gruelling to fish off this coast than the Norwegian coast, even off Finnmark, far above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway.
Their boats are not really intended for deep-sea fishing either. They are usually old vessels, less than 60 feet long. The big vessels which have been brought over from Norway have been put to active war service.
In the streets, you will find Norwegian children playing, in the shops, Norwegian women shopping and then in the pubs, Norwegian, Danes and Swedes arguing about the perpetual problems of brother nations, a subject which they never appear to solve to satisfaction. And if you down to the quay, you will be sure to see men with their hands deep in their pockets, spitting into the sea, you can be certain that learned that art of the fishing quays of Bergen or Ålesund.
You get the North Sea wind in your face like a clenched fist because there are no protecting skerries, no broad-shouldered mountains to take the force of the weather, only naked and defenceless hand. And you never need bellows to make a draught for the open fires in the solid stone houses.
A thirty feet high wall protects the harbour where the fishing boats huddle together like freezing birds. But not event the wall will prevent the sea from coming over when it is in the mood. Sometimes these seas will even take a house or two with them and it sometimes looks as though it will swallow the whole town.
There are Norwegians in this town who have fished in the Arctic seas on the halibut banks off Greenland and even some of Norway's best whale gunners are now putting all their experience into the hunting of cod and haddock. They all agree, however, that it is much harder and more gruelling to fish off this coast than the Norwegian coast, even off Finnmark, far above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway.
Their boats are not really intended for deep-sea fishing either. They are usually old vessels, less than 60 feet long. The big vessels which have been brought over from Norway have been put to active war service.
The Scots and the Norwegians, west country people, have very much in common however and Scottish living conditions are very much the same too, although the Norwegians can hardly reconcile themselves to open fire places in the houses or the cold, draughty bedrooms. It is more difficult for the whalers from East Norway to settle down, however, and they tend to feel that the people have a hard existence and that Sunday is a little over-done. There are thirteen churches, seven pubs, and one cinema in this small down of few thousand people.
A Scandinavian Reading Room has been established where the Norwegians can get coffee and sandwiches during the week and where they can attend religious services and socials. The Norwegians are particularly impressed by the dances held in this town: young and old go to the dances and they do not think that modern dances are any more sinful that the old fashioned ones. It is true that they do not encourage excessive jitterbugging but that may be because the floor of the old town hall is none too good! Here is another side of the Scots too: they know the importance of saving paper and they know to do it. Thus instead of issuing tickets at a dance, a blue mark is stamped on the palm of the hand, a mark which must be shown every time one passes in or out!
A Scandinavian Reading Room has been established where the Norwegians can get coffee and sandwiches during the week and where they can attend religious services and socials. The Norwegians are particularly impressed by the dances held in this town: young and old go to the dances and they do not think that modern dances are any more sinful that the old fashioned ones. It is true that they do not encourage excessive jitterbugging but that may be because the floor of the old town hall is none too good! Here is another side of the Scots too: they know the importance of saving paper and they know to do it. Thus instead of issuing tickets at a dance, a blue mark is stamped on the palm of the hand, a mark which must be shown every time one passes in or out!
Norwegians are happy in this part of Scotland and they like the people well. But they long for home is great and it is not unusual to see a lone Norwegian fisherman standing on the shore with his eyes turned to the east - towards Norway and home.