Richard Bettess
29/1/1879 – 23/7/63

Richard (Dick) Bettess was the third child and second son of Frederick Bettess, (10/10/1846-24/10/1916), who was born in Padstow, Cornwall. Frederick was a fisherman and seaman who married Margaret Anne Bond, (1855-31/3/1919), of Fleetwood and settled there. It is probably true to say that any one in Fleetwood with the surname Bettess is a descendant of Frederick and his wife.

Dick went to sea at the age of 11 as cook in the smack “William & John”, under the skipper Burgoyne Cowell. He sailed in a variety of smacks and prawners, and when he was 16 years old he was sent with ‘Pepper’ Wright to Southport to pick up the prawner “The Two Sisters” and bring her back to Fleetwood. ‘Pepper’ was about the same age as Dick, but Dick was in charge and he skippered the prawner for some time.For the next few years he alternated between smacks and steam trawlers until from 1901 he sailed exclusively in steam trawlers. On the 19th June 1902 he got his steam trawler skippers ticket and his first ship as skipper was the Marrs owned by J.Marrs & Co. This was followed by the Lucerne for the same company. On 16th October 1903 he took command of the Hellenic, belonging to ‘The Grimsby Steam Fishing Company’, better known to an earlier generation as ‘Kelly’s’ (W.M.Kelly).

On 29th December 1903 Dick married Kate Leadbetter whose forebears came from the Banks, near Southport, in the early immigration from that area to Fleetwood, so he was well connected throughout the old fishing community of the port.

In May 1904 he began sailing for “The Wyre Steam Trawling Co”, better known as Ward’s, and he worked for them, in one capacity or another, until about 1936, with a short break in the Navy. Wards made him their Commodore Skipper in 1911 and he continued fishing for most of the 1914-18 War. For some of the time in that war the fishing was organised on a convoy system, small groups of trawlers keeping together. One of the ships had a gun at the bow, in case they ran into an enemy vessel, and one had a gun at the stern to lag behind the others and engage the enemy if they were being chased.

At the beginning of the war Wards had 18 trawlers, but they were requisitioned gradually until in 1918 the last one, the Stormcock, which Dick skippered, was taken. Having no ship he was called up for the Navy and eventually was sent as an ordinary rating to a minesweeper, which was a steam trawler. Ironically he was the cook, and the commanding officer had been a bank manager in peace time. It is interesting to speculate whether the C.O. knew that his cook was a more competent seaman than he was and had far more experience in handling wire ropes and gear above and below water!
Dick served in the Navy from 19th July 1918 to 12th February 1919, when he returned to Wards, taking the Arley to sea on 20th March 1919.

On the 31st January 1920, while still in the Arley, he rescued four fishing boats and their crews, totalling 28 men, in the Sound of Innistrahull, off the north coast of Ireland during a gale. In a continuation of the same incident he went to sea again to Rathlin Island to pick up another six men whose boat had been driven ashore there. For this rescue the Royal National Lifeboat Institution presented him with a pair of silver mounted binoculars and gave the sum of £20 for division amongst the crew. Dick gave up his share to increase the amount for the others. There is a brief account in the magazine “The Lifeboat” of August 1920 on page 88. In this report it is stated “Although no actual risk of life was incurred by the crew of the trawler, it was due to their persevering endeavours, extending over twelve hours, that the men were saved”.

Dick was appointed Shore Skipper for Wards on 19th January 1921. His duties, as outlined in his letter of appointment, were concerned with the employment of skippers and mates, keeping an oversight of all the fishing gear on each ship, gathering information from their own skippers about where they had been fishing and with what results and doing the same generally about other ships, using this information to advise their own skippers on where to fish. In addition he would be sent to look into the merits of any new fishing gear, sometimes going to sea on trial trips, taking new ships for a few months to see how they behaved, particularly if they embodied new features. For example Wards had two new ships built about 1929, the “Lune” and the “Fane”. They both had cruiser sterns and balanced rudders, Dick took the “Fane” for about four or five months to give these new features a good trial. If one of their ships went ashore he would go with the insurance representative to have a look at her and to assess the chance of salvaging her.

About 1936 he was, in modern terms, “made redundant”, but in the language of those days “sacked”. It was caused partly by “the depression”, and partly by “politics” in the firm. Dick went back to full time fishing, sailing for Mellings perhaps properly known as “The Sun Steam Trawling Co”, but after a short time he was persuaded by Archie Watson, the manager for Mellings, to buy his own ship and sail her as skipper. The choice fell on the “Cameo” which was on the small side by the standards of that time but as compared with his early days she was a sizeable vessel. She was bought on the east coast and I do not know her original registration but Dick had the registration changed to Fleetwood and she became FD38. I think that this was because of loyalty to his home port. After sailing her a few years he, in the well known phrase “swallowed the anchor” and gave up seafaring. Round about this time he bought the “Oonah Hall” and ran the two ships through the “Sun” office. The “Sun’s” house colours were a black hull with a thin lighter coloured line right round and a white funnel with a black top separated from the white by a red band with an image of the sun in it. Dick followed this pattern but in place of the sun there was the letter B.

Very sadly the “Oonah Hall” was run down in the first year of the war and lives were lost. This hit Dick hard because in all his own seagoing career he had never lost a man. Soon after the end of the war the “Cameo’s” career came to an end and she was sent to the breakers yard. Dick kept up some interest in fishing by purchasing an inshore boat, the “Pamella” with one or two young men working it. Eventually he gave that up, but almost to the end of his life he visited the dock area, being taken by car because he had difficulty walking.

Some of the ships he sailed in are –
Prawners
Black Prince The Two Sisters

Smacks
William & John Snowdrop Lily Oyster Girl Cygnet
Comet Carlisle Margaret Agnes

Steam Trawlers – crew
Britanic Adriatic Rattler Akranes

Steam Trawlers – Skipper
Marrs Lucerne Hellenic Ribble Wyre Stormcock
Arley Trent Greta Maun Sulby
Queen Alexandra Brock Peter Lovett Transvaal J. Baels Mauriox
Fane Harry Melling Cameo