Something Fishy in Grimsby: A Museum Caught in the Woke Net
In a small port-town in Lincolnshire, there is something fishy happening to a popular museum called the Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre – a multi-award winning attraction which will transport you back in time to the 1950s. The wokerati have carried out an inquiry into the museum. Why? They want to review its collection of material on decimated fishing fleets and the work of the trawlermen. It is not to recognise their hard work but to address possible connections to slavery, colonialism and racism. Presumably trigger warnings will be positioned by offending items, whilst some may be removed with the aim of promoting “decolonisation and people with protected characteristics”.
Portrayals of North Sea fishermen are set to be decolonised to come into line with what is increasingly common practice by ticking DEI boxes, ensuring the woke inspectors are satisfied. The museum will focus on gathering more information on individuals from diverse backgrounds and with protected characteristics, making the place more “diverse and welcoming”. A spokesperson from the museum stated:
We want to share how museum objects can represent stories of slavery, colonialism and racism, and are committed to addressing the legacy of these subjects through open and honest conversations with those we represent.
The museum has a fabulous display of preserved trawler interiors and carefully crafted recreations, with mannequins of women and trawlermen wearing typical yellow waterproofs working at different jobs within the industry. It also includes a pub and a mock British chippy. How are they going to make this inclusive? Perhaps a few Pride flags and only non-alcoholic drinks behind the bar?
The museum is a popular attraction, with a 4.6 star rating on Google from 807 reviews. It is a beloved museum for locals, who have also voiced their objections to the new plans, whilst showing their appreciation of the museum’s original format. One local review on TripAdvisor states: “It’s a moving tribute to the men who fed the nation – no need to rewrite that.”
Through investment and curation, the museum has won numerous awards, including inclusion in the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame, Blue Peter’s Museum of the Year and Attraction of the Year in 1993. One wonders, with its fame and the admiration it has won over the years, why its management suddenly believes it is offensive to people. This is just one of many ‘solutions’ in search of a problem which does not exist and is a blatant attack on Britain’s history and heritage.
Trawlermen were vital to Britain. Historically, they played a crucial role in providing food, contributing to the economy and even serving as essential personnel during wartime. Their expertise in navigating and understanding the sea, combined with the efficiency of trawlers in catching large quantities of fish, made them crucial for supplying vital resources during wartime. Further, Grimsby once boasted the largest fishing port in the world during the mid-20th century. At its peak in the 1950s and 60s, Grimsby’s docks buzzed with activity, providing employment to thousands. Their reputation should not be tarnished.
Unfortunately, though, this attitude towards British culture is spreading. Roger Watson’s recent trip to Manchester’s Art Gallery found what used to be a fascinating exhibition of British art but which is now a journey down guilt-lane: a yellow wall was dedicated to “the theme of migration, with a focus on empire and colonisation, trade, gendered experience and feelings aroused by the comfort of home”. Towards that end, the prestigious Natural Maritime Museum has announced intentions to “interrogate Britain’s imperial past” by altering exhibits. Elsewhere, a 12 year-old schoolgirl was turned away from her school in Bilton, Warwickshire, because she wore a Union Jack dress to the school’s ‘Diversity Day’. She was ordered to change or go home because ‘diversity’ did not include her culture.
By erasing and altering aspects of British history, we risk erasing more than just facts – we slowly erode the foundations of what made Britain great. The story of British trawlermen and the sacrifices they made deserve to be preserved and praised, not politicised. If we suddenly have ‘issues’ over brave men who put their lives on the line and often lost them to provide food for their country, then we really have a problem. We ought to do better.
Jack Watson is a 16 year-old schoolboy in Year 11. You can read his Substack about following Hull City FC here. Follow him on X here.
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Very well done Jack.
It is worth mentioning too of the contribution the Grimsby trawler men made in both world wars with mine sweeping, to try to keep the shipping lanes free, a very dangerous job that cost a lot of brave men and good ships. If you ever exit the Royal Dock in Grimsby going out to sea (as I frequently do) glance up at the memorial plaque on the Dock tower and spare a moment to read the tribute to these men.
We want to share how museum objects can represent stories of slavery, colonialism and racism
In the past these three things were universal, but the marxo-fascists won’t mention that. Instead they will give them an anglophobic* slant by implying that they were invented by wicked whitie.
*Anglophobia – the irrational hatred of the British people.
But English fishermen had nothing to do with slavery. Any memorial to that trade would be best built in West Africa and in Barbary.
British fishermen were taken as slaves and landed on the Barbary Coast by the Arabs. They were amongst more than a million white Europeans taken in to slavery by the Ottoman Empire. This is never mentioned by apologists like Sadiq Kahn.
Incidentally Kahn has just visited Pakistan, the centre of modern day slavery, and he never mentioned slavery once.
Ah yes, the slavery twaddle. Because Muslims wouldn’t know anything about colonialism, would they? That’s my cue; ”The West is being taught to hate itself. Every day, the same slogans. “Apologise for slavery.” “Tear down your history.” “You’re guilty for what your ancestors did.” Schools, museums, media outlets all chanting the same script – that Britain, Europe, and the wider West are uniquely evil because of the Atlantic slave trade. But here’s the part they won’t say – because it blows their entire narrative to pieces. Slavery never ended in parts of the Islamic world. It wasn’t some relic of history. It’s still happening – right now – in plain sight. In countries like Mauritania, Mali, Yemen, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, millions of people live as slaves. Not metaphorically. Literally. Bought, sold, beaten, raped, worked to death. In 2023, Arab nations ranked number one globally for the highest rates of modern slavery. Higher than Asia, higher than Africa, higher than anywhere else on Earth. But where are the protests? Where are the moral crusades? The university campaigns? The Guardian editorials? Nowhere. Because acknowledging that fact tears apart the cosy lie that only the West sins, only Europeans enslaved, and only… Read more »
I’d recommend Bernard Edwards ‘The Royal Nave against the Slave Traders’ for a very well researched and highly readable account of how we literally fought the slave traders for nearly a 100 years through the 19th C. Over a thousand Royal Navy sailors killed and countless thousands injured trying to rescue and stop the illegal trading conducted by Arab Muslims in the main, even when they switched to African east coast ports for fear of being blown out of the water by our Navy we still pursed them.
I seethe with anger when I hear youngster talking of how we were responsible for the slave trade, thinking it was us and us alone …
The problem is the Americans don’t care about such details of the history of uninteresting countries which aren’t the USA. To them, the USA is identical to the planet and all parts of it which don’t agree with that are simply in error.
So-called progressive left policies in the so-called West are usually just literal replications of domestic policy issues in the USA regardless if this makes any local sense, up the the point of demanding the exercise of 2nd amendment rights in jurisdictions where this would be a crime. Activists no care.
Thanks for this Mogs.
I doubt they were even a handful of non-whites in the whole county before Blair started bringing in people faster than the rate of a West African tribal leader in slave trading days.
Ahistorical moronism prepares to strike again.
Dear God, it’s exhausting.
It doesn’t help when Right Charlie III can’t even be bothered to support Britain.
https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/article/grimsby-fishing-fleet-great-storm
A cracking article from Graham Bedford at FreeSpeech Backlash and eminently complementary.
“When The Boat Doesn’t Come In – The Great War
Text Settings”
https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/article/when-boat-doesnt-come-great-war#:~:text=When%20The%20Boat,Text%20Settings
A brilliant and very moving short history of the Grimsby fishing fleet through WW1. Heartbreaking reading but worth your time.
Graham Bedford once again.
Why do ‘they’ think slavery was a factor in every single industry?
I grew up in East Hull; not the area lionised by the sentimentalists – the other side. The city stank of fish if the wind blew in a particular direction.
Never once, in any context, was slavery ever connected with the fishing industry.
If there’s any colonising going on it is by the DEI industry forcing their neb (Hull vernacular) into all aspects of human endeavour in order to justify their existence and their funding.
LOL, we used to say ”nebby” for ”nosy” in Newcastle. ”Stop being so nebby!”
I can immediately supply such a connection: English fishermen sold their fish to make a living. Families connected to the Atlantic slave trade sometimes ate fish. Hence, fishermen profitted from the slave trade.
NB: That’s a contrived example I just came up with. But I wouldn’t be surprised if encountering something that’s at least very similar in the real world in future.
I know this won’t be popular, but I believe we need to start culling university graduates. It’ll make the world a far happier place.
An even better idea might be cull people working in university administration and at least some university lecturers to prevent young people getting mentally infected with Bad Stuff™.
Best of luck in finding ethnic minority fishermen from Grimsby.
Who are the people deciding to ruin this museum? They should be named and shamed. Can they be removed? Can the museum be bankrupted and then bought out of administration by a normal person?
It is fast approaching the time all those involved in these pernicious acts of cultural sabotage be removed from their very well paid and protected roles.
Replace them with people who love and cherish their past, their heritage and their culture, in a few years time that may well include you Jack.
Come on you Tigers! Hoping for a better and more productive season.