Little Gem

Little Gem – This Mevagissey tosher was built in 1906 by Fraziers yard, who produced a staggering amount of coastal inshore fishing boats during the early part of the last century. She is 18 feet long, with a beam of 6ft, and typical of the hundreds of boats that fished the east Cornwall coast in the last century. Originally built for the Lakeman family of Mevagissey, she was used for plummeting for mackerel, and would probably have gone netting also. Although the lines are typical of boats along the south-east Cornwall coast, toshers were mostly built at under 20 feet in length to avoid the higher bracket of harbour dues in Mevagissey.