The Crew
Portrait of some of the drifter crew members
Great Yarmouth Museums
Portrait of part of the crew of a drifter
By John Layton
The crew size would vary with the size of the boat, but an average would be between 10 and 20 men.
The Wages
The Crews were paid via a 'share system', so each man would get a proportion of the sale price of the catch.
Typically, if the boat was owned by a company, they would take their share, then the crew would divide the rest up between them, the skipper getting perhaps more than one share, the mates around a share each, the ordinary seamen perhaps 3/4, and the cook 1/2 a share.