Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Britain's Oldest Fisherman: Bill Hocking, 80

He's been fishing for 70 years, can't swim a stroke, doesn't eat fish or shellfish, prefers steak.

Makes his living catching crabs and lobsters to sell in the fishmarket at Looe, Cornwall.



Update: Much better story on the same subject here. H/T to Jon Mills, the author of the piece, for pointing it out. Video included in the link.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice story, I found a video of Bill on this site

http://swns.com/oldest-fisherman-celebrates-70-years-at-sea-despite-not-eating-fish-and-not-being-able-to-swim-190947.html

Bob said...

Thank you, Jon, much better story than I linked to. I'll update my blog entry.

Neil Kendrick said...

I was 5, in 1968, when I first went fishing with Bill Hocking on his crab boat (a clinker built version of the current Neptune's Pride). He was a great seaman and great man in those days ... nothing has changed - that's obvious ... and for the next 10 or so years I fished with him and his son Rob (trawling on the "Ella").
It's been 30 years since I have seen Bill ... and its good to see he is still around and doing well. Thanks for sharing this and - as I now live and work in Australia - I will try and get a letter back to Bill :-)
Neil "Nellie" Kendrick, Gold Coast Australia

Anonymous said...

Nellie Grandad still lives in the same place but if you dont have his address email me on natzeh@hotmail.com

Natalie Hocking