The Headscarf Revolutionaries: Lillian Bilocca and the Hull Triple-Trawler Disaster

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A barrage of vicious hate mail, often from those she’d done most to help, was sent to her home and to the press. The scenes at sea are as vivid as anything in Hemingway or Melville, and winter conditions in Icelandic fishing waters make life at Alistair Maclean’s Ice Station Zebra seem tame. The campaign then turned to direct action, with the women going down to the dock gates to try to stop trawlers leaving port without a radio operator. They have received plaudits from folk royalty including Seth Lakeman, Jon Boden, Rod Clements, Declan Sinnott, BBC Introducing and have recently been endorsed by Seasalt Clothing.

It seeks to deepen understandings of the past, cast light on the present and agitate for change in the world we live in now.The Headscarf Revolutionaries’ campaign is an inspiration, and a lesson in campaigning, and the role of women in workers’ struggle.

The Headscarf Revolutionary was kickstarted in 1968 when three trawlers were lost in as many weeks - known as the Triple Trawler Disaster. It is an effective approach, particularly the section near the beginning in which some of the men on the crews of the doomed ships say goodbye to their families and head out to sea for what the reader knows is the final time. After gathering a 10,000-signature petition, known as the Fishermen’s Charter, Yvonne, Lillian, Mary and Christine marched down to Parliament. They marched on the docks, and picketed and stormed fishing industry company offices when bosses refused to meet them.

When news of the second sinking reached Hull, Lillian Bilocca, whose husband and son worked on trawlers, began a campaign that became international news and completely overhauled safety standards on British trawlers. Brian W Lavery spent 25 years in various senior roles in journalism before undertaking a first-class joint honours degree (English and Creative Writing) and a doctorate in creative writing at Hull. This was followed by mass meetings, a march on the trawler bosses' offices and dramatic attempts to stop any unsafe trawlers going to sea. On 24 January it was reported that the St Romanus was thought lost at sea with all twenty men aboard.

And to this list we can add the uprising of the Headscarf Revolutionaries, which has now been brilliantly documented in a new book by Brian Lavery. The scenes at sea are as vivid as anything in Hemingway or Melville, and winter conditions in Icelandic fishing waters make life at Alistair Maclean's Ice Station Zebra seem tame. This era is integral to Hull's history, and such a thorough going over of these events means that this book will be read and relevant for decades to come. The four headscarf revolutionaries pressed the government to intervene and improve safety standards.Although they had some support from the National Union of Seaman, many trawler men and the TGWU were hostile. Lavery tells the story of the campaign, the women involved, and the men who lost their lives on the St.

She became a school matron at Eton College, and among her later charges were Princes William and Harry. Virginia Bilocca-McKenzie, is the daughter of Lillian Bilocca’s, who kickstarted and was one of the key leaders of the movement.

The first to be implemented was a mother ship complete with up to date medical and radio facilities. In the passenger seat of the Mini Metro driven by a snapper 40 years my senior my nerves were assuaged – in part.