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Leader - History

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Leader is the largest, and oldest, of Trinity's three vessels. One of the 'Big Sloops' she represented the pinnacle of the evolution of the sailing trawler.

The sailing trawler originated in Brixham. It is not known exactly when the Brixham men began to trawl under sail (until that point, fishing was done by long-line) but there was an established local fleet by the 1770s. The Brixham fishermen soon began ranging further afield, East to Ramsgate, Lowestoft, the Humber, Hartlepool and Sunderland, and West to the Bristol Channel, Liverpool and Dublin. In time local fleets were established in these areas, using boats based on the Brixham designs, with many boats still built in Brixham and the Dart. By the time the last sailing trawlers were built in the late 1920s, over 2,000 had been built, 350 of them at Galmpton

Leader was built in 1892 at A.W.Gibbs boatyard at Galmpton on the river Dart, for an East Coast owner. William Robbens of Lowestoft paid £1,100 for the boat, raised by means of a mortgage. A few weeks after leaving the Dart she put to sea on her first North Sea fishing trip.

The ships' papers, still on record in Lowestoft, show that the Skipper and Mate worked for a share of the profits. The first hand received 17 shillings a week, paid to his wife, the second hand 13 shillings, paid to himself, and the boy 10 shillings, paid to his mother. Leader fished under sail from Lowestoft until 1907, when she was sold to Scandinavian owners and moved to the Baltic.

 She was taken to Scandinavia in 1907 where she continued to fish under sail until 1927, when her first engine was installed. In the 1940s and 50s she was used to carry cargo under power, but was abandoned when this became uneconomical. In the 1960s she was sold to the Swedish Sail Training Association who restored her to sailing condition and fitted her out to take up to 24 trainees on offshore voyages. In 1985, she was taken to the West coast of Scotland, where she was used for sailing charter holidays.

In 1996 she was brought home to South Devon, and operated from Dartmouth until 1999, when she became part of the Trinity fleet, and returned to Brixham.