47
'sixties this prejudice began to disappear, and by 1970 most Kau Sai purse-seiners had given up using the sweeps for their fishing operations. One important result of this change was that most had also given up working in pairs. One mechanised junk and a sampan were now enough to shoot and haul the net. The quite far-reaching effects of this change on economic and family organisation are described in the following chapters. It almost certainly facilitated the move ashore. The 37 purse-seiners based upon Kau Sai in 1953 and working then in pairs (i.e. 18 pairs, one family owned an extra junk) had been reduced in 1970 to 12 single working boats.
Rhythms of living: the daily routine
For the purse-seiners the work of the day began a little before sunset. In 1970, just as twenty years before, the evening meal was eaten at about 5.30 p.m. in summer, earlier in winter. It was usually cooked by the most junior wife in the family and eaten en famille under cover of the forʼard shelter or in summer on the open fore-deck. Where in 1970 part of a family lived ashore, the meal might be cooked in either place, and eaten perhaps in two sittings. Immediately it was finished and cleared away, faces and bodies were washed, and with the minimum of fuss the fishing junk, with its partner if it had one, was off to sea. The further afield they planned to go the earlier they would start, but one noticeable result of mechanisation has been a generally later start in the evenings. Under sail all the purse-seiners would have left the anchorage by sunset, with engines they quite often stayed until it was already dark. Once they had left, the anchorage seemed very quiet.
For the dwellers on shore the evening meal used to be a little later, but by 1970 the later start to purse-seining meant that there was now little difference between mealtimes ashore and afloat. Previously, too, the departure of the purse-seiners involved a sudden silence, for with them went most of the children who had been playing ashore all day. Evenings in 1970 were less peaceful and much brighter. Many more people were about, and electricity now made it possible for children to play, boys and girls to do their homework, women to continue making plastic flowers and
47
'sixties this prejudice began to disappear, and by 1970 most Kau Sai purse-seiners had given up using the sweeps for their fishing operations. One important result of this change was that most had also given up working in pairs. One mechanised junk and a sampan were now enough to shoot and haul the net. The quite far-reaching effects of this change on economic and family organisation are described in the following chapters. It almost certainly facilitated the move ashore. The 37 purse-seiners based upon Kau Sai in 1953 and working then in pairs (i.e. 18 pairs, one family owned an extra junk) had been reduced in 1970 to 12 single working boats.
Rhythms of living: the daily routine
For the purse-seiners the work of the day began a little before sunset. In 1970, just as twenty years before, the evening meal was eaten at about 5.30p.m. in summer, earlier in winter. It was usually cooked by the most junior wife in the family and eaten en famille under cover of the forʼard shelter or in summer on the open fore-deck. Where in 1970 part of a family lived ashore, the meal might be cooked in either place, and eaten perhaps in two sittings. Immediately it was finished and cleared away, faces and bodies were washed, and with the minimum of fuss the fishing junk, with its partner if it had one, was off to sea. The further afield they planned to go the earlier they would start, but one noticeable result of mechanisation has been a generally later start in the evenings. Under sail all the purse-seiners would have left the anchorage by sunset, with engines they quite often stayed until it was already dark. Once they had left, the anchorage seemed very quiet.
For the dwellers on shore the evening meal used to be a little later, but by 1970 the later start to purse-seining meant that there was now little difference between mealtimes ashore and afloat. Previously, too, the departure of the purse-seiners involved a sudden silence, for with them went most of the children who had been playing ashore all day. Evenings in 1970 were less peaceful and much brighter. Many more people were about, and electrici- ty now made it possible for children to play, boys and girls to do their homework, women to continue making plastic flowers and
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