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late fifties but still vigorous and with an eldest surviving son as yet only in his mid-twenties. In 1970 the old man was still alive, the son, now over 40, had replaced him as master about the year 1960. On the small liners, also, by 1970 some of the masters of the stem and nuclear family crews of twenty years before were still living as retired ex-masters, their eldest sons now in charge. (There was still no three generation family with more than one married male of the second generation present on any of the small liners in 1970). One may link this change with the beginning of increased longevity connected with the rising standards of living in the 'sixties and late 'fifties.
The small long-liners in Kau Sai thus showed certain consistencies: nuclear and stem families were the most common; normally mastership went with senior paternal status; virtually all males aged 40 years and above were masters, but only one-third of those in their thirties. In 1953, 3 (out of 17) cases differed from this. The differences were of two kinds. In one (2 cases in 1953) the crew comprised two or more undivided brothers with their wives and children; in each case the eldest brother was master, and the joint father had died fairly recently. It is safe to predict that these were unstable groups, and that unless a decision were made to change to a larger scale of long-lining (medium long-lining) or other type of fishing requiring a larger crew, and unless there was enough capital to make this possible, the brothers would formally divide their families within a few years. In both of the 1953 cases this occurred. The 4 newly formed crews were then, of course, of the normal nuclear family type.
The second type of difference from what was usual in 1953 occurred if a senior father retired from active mastership. In 1970 there were 3 (out of ...) and in 1953 1 (out of 17) such cases. In all the 1970 cases the crew comprised a stem family and with the retirement of the senior male the married son present (in every case the eldest son in about his mid-thirties or early forties) stepped into his shoes. The 1953 case was unusual in that the crew comprised only a nuclear family and father had retired from mastership a few years before leaving his only son, still unmarried and only 24 years old in 1953, in charge. The young