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At an age when most men are just beginning to make their way in a career, Skipper George Beech has decided to retire.
But 27 year old Mr. Beech, of Blackiston St, Fleetwood, doesn't intend to live the life of Reilly. He plans to swap the bridge of a trawler for the counter of a newsagents in Adlington, near Chorley.
There could hardly be a bigger difference between the two roles but, says Skipper Beech, the hardest part was the decision to up sticks and make the move. "Everybody at sea talks about getting out but very few do anything about it - it's just deciding to do it that's difficult," he said.
Skipper Beech's wife, Anne, is also glad that her husband wants to make the break with the sea. The couple have three children, Lorraine, seven, Susan six and four year old Mark. "If Mark ever wanted to go, I wouldn't let him," said the burly fisherman who went to sea straight from school at 15, and has been a successful skipper for J. Marr & Son, Ltd since he was 22.
"You think it's great at first with money jingling in your pocket and only two days to spend it, But that wears off - especially if you have a family. You come home every two or three weeks and your children have grown up before you know it."
What makes a man give up a job with a top executive income? One of the main things is the insecurity of the skipper's lonely job - after years as a successful fisherman earning a great deal of money for himself and the ship's owners, a skipper could be sacked because his ability to catch fish had decreased. Unfitted for another job, he must go to sea as a crewman or "stand on the corner" - hanging around the dock gates - and wait for another chance.
"I'm not saying that this would happen to me, but it might and it's not a pleasant thought," reflected Skipper Beech.
Another drawback to a fisherman's life he says is the short turn around period between trips
"You're no sooner home than you're gone again in 48 hours - I've always said it's not long enough - and the more money that the ship and skippers are making, the quicker the owners want them back at sea."
Skipper Beech feels that improvements could be made in the industry but not where safety is concerned on Fleetwood ships. "It doesn't matter how much fish there is under you, if it's too bad to fish you can't fish, and in freak conditions there's nothing you can do no matter what equipment there is."
For nearly two years Skipper Beech has been in the Edwina and it was on "a very long night in" January that his worst brush with danger came. "It was on the night that a hurricane hit Glasgow and it was blowing so hard there was no swell. As soon as the wind fined away a bit, the seas started to really build up and we really took a battering."
Skippers, by virtue of their job, accept a great deal of responsibility. They are responsible for the lives of up to 20 or more men, the safety of a ship worth more than a quarter of a million pounds, fishing gear worth hundreds, and, come hell or high water, must catch a trip of fish.
The strain can be enormous with little sleep for days on end and the fear of failure lurking in the back of a tired mind. All this is accepted by the would-be skipper but Skipper Beech feels that at least one slice of responsibility should rest elsewhere. "There should be someone at Fleetwood to decide if the weather is too bad for a ship to sail. A successful skipper can easily say that he's not going, but a man just starting out or not doing so well dare not say so. It should be taken out of his hands as it is at other ports."
Skipper Beech also feels deckhands should receive more money and contends that if there was more industry at Fleetwood, many fishermen would leave the sea and work ashore.
"And yet the funny thing is that lots of them do try jobs ashore but the sea always pulls them back - they detest it but they can't stay away."
Skipper Beech, whose father, Skipper George Beech Snr, of Station road, Thornton, has been a fisherman all his life, is gambling that his new life as a newsagent will get the sea out of his blood and he may even come back to Fleetwood "cured." After another couple of trips it will be time to move to industrial South Lancashire, where water usually flows in grimy canals and fishing is done with a rod and line.
But there to remind him of his seagoing days will be a watercolour of his first command, Jacinta. "It will be a big change going down there," reflected Skipper Beech, "but it'll work out, I think."
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