Hartlepool's links with the sea go back into the mists of time; for centuries fishermen used the Fish Sands to land their catches when Hartlepool was a small isolated village. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the coming of steam the fishing industry evolved into a major local employer, involved in the national effort of both world wars. Sadly today the industry is a shadow of its former self. Author Malcolm Cook, whose family background in the Hartlepool fishing industry goes back three generations, traces the rise and fall of fishing in this area from open cobles and steam trawlers to the present-day decline of just a few inshore trawlers. Widely illustrated, this fascinating book also includes a comprehensive register of Hartlepool-owned fishing vessels since 1869, revealing the strong generational links that local families have always had with the sea.