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Local Heroes: Hull's Trawlermen
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What happened when you went to London? Mary Denness 6

What happened when you went to London?
Well, we did an awful lot of television coverage and the newspapers and so on. But the big day was the day we were invited to meet the ministers in the Houses of Parliament to thrash out some of the points that we wanted implemented in the fishing industry. We wanted decasualisation. We wanted a mothership to oversee the fishermen in the trawlers in the very bad weather, with a doctor on board because that’s something they didn’t have. If a trawlerman was taken ill he had to be taken to the nearest port. It could be days away. So aspects of it like that, we wanted to put to the ministers.
 
· Have you met Harry Eddon?
 
No, I’ve never had the honour of meeting Harry Eddon. And we were, actually, at the House of Commons, waiting in an ante-room to go in to meet the Cabinet ministers. The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and his group of people, when a newspaper man came running in to the ante-room and said “Guess what? Someone’s been found alive in a life raft with three other men”. Or perhaps two. I think there was three others. Sadly the others were dead but one was found alive. We couldn’t believe it. But thereafter, of course, all the news stories of Harry Eddon came out. But I never had the pleasure of meeting him. Or the honour of meeting him. I wish I had.