Ninety boats. At 180 to 260 florins per unit — depending on manufacturer, range, and battery specification — the total cost of equipping every fishing vessel under twenty metres in Bobington’s harbour with a position-reporting beacon comes to between 16,200 and 23,400 florins.
It is, by municipal standards, a trivial sum. It is approximately one-tenth of the permanent roof repair at Bramblegate Market. It is less than what a single floor of a Greystone Wharf warehouse is assessed at for vacancy levy purposes. It would not, as one Harbour Authority official noted privately, cover the catering budget for a full session of the Kaelmar talks.
And yet it is, as the Harbour Authority Board prepares for tomorrow’s meeting, the subject of genuine disagreement — not over whether it should be done, but over who should pay.
The Fishermen’s Benevolent Association voted unanimously on 12 March — all forty-seven vessel masters present at the Harbourfront Mission Hall — to demand that position-reporting beacons become mandatory on every vessel under twenty metres operating from Bobington harbour. Captain Dermot Shale, whose vessel Lady Maren drifted without radio contact for eighteen hours earlier this month, spoke in favour. Owen Pritchard, who is seventy-one and lost his nephew Daniel at sea in 1994, spoke in favour. No one spoke against.
The resolution, formally submitted to the Board and to the Council Maritime Affairs Committee, asks for mandatory carriage within sixty days of approval.
Dr Willa Greaves, the Board’s marine safety specialist, has indicated that the principle will receive “brisk and unanimous” support. Harbour Master Cornelius Ashby, who attended the Association’s meeting in person, has also expressed his backing.
The question is funding.
The Association has obtained bulk purchase quotations from two manufacturers: Harland Maritime Instruments of Port Caravel and Ashwater Signal Works, the Bobington-based firm on Lower Harbourfront Parade. Both have quoted for a ninety-unit order. Harland’s units, which have a reported range of approximately 40 nautical miles and a battery life of seventy-two hours, come in at 220 florins per unit. Ashwater Signal Works, whose units are domestically manufactured with a range of roughly 30 nautical miles, has quoted 185 florins.
The Association’s position is clear: the fishermen should not bear the full cost. Secretary Wilfred Poole has argued that maritime safety is a public good and that the Harbour Authority — which collects mooring fees, licensing charges, and a percentage of catch value — has a responsibility to fund the equipment.
The Authority’s position, articulated privately by senior staff, is that mooring fees are already allocated and that a new capital expense of this nature should be referred to the Council for budgetary approval.
The Council Maritime Affairs Committee meets Thursday — two days after the Board — and is expected to consider the same question from the municipal side.
“The fishermen are asking for 20,000 florins to keep their people alive,” said Captain Shale, reached at the harbour on Tuesday. “I have read about the tramway. I have read about the bridge. I have read about the theatre. Twenty thousand florins. That is what we are arguing about.”
He was asked whether the Association’s members would be prepared to fund the beacons themselves.
“Some of them cannot afford it,” Captain Shale said. “A beacon at 220 florins is two days’ catch for a vessel that fishes the outer banks. For the inshore boats, it is more. And the men who need the beacons most are the ones who can afford them least.”
Marcus Felbridge, the Deputy Harbour Master, confirmed that the agenda for tomorrow’s Board meeting includes the beacon resolution as its first substantive item. The meeting begins at 10 AM at the Port Authority building.
“The Board is expected to adopt the principle,” Mr Felbridge said. “The mechanism of funding will require further consultation.”
Captain Shale, told of this formulation, was silent for a moment.
“Further consultation,” he said. “My crew were adrift for eighteen hours with no radio and no beacon and no way for anyone on shore to know whether we were alive or dead. Further consultation.”