The port of Hull in the north-east of England was the replenishment base for the most popular British meal in the late 1960s.
This is where trawlers leave and catch the cod, which is fried in fish and chip stalls all over the country.
The catch is also processed and resold at the Hull docks.
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Title: The Little Book of the Sea: Heroes: The Courageous Tales of the Sea
Publisher: Ankerherz Verlag
Number of pages: 236
Author: Kanter, Olaf
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It is a world of hard work that Lillian Bilocca grew up in.
Her father, husband, a Maltese fisherman whose name she takes, and her son make a living at sea.
She herself has been working in a fish factory since she was 14, peeling off the skin of fish and filleting them.
Because of their appearance and their inexhaustible energy, they are called "Big Lil".
Working conditions on the trawlers are poor and the job is considered one of the most dangerous of all.
The fishing trips of the small and usually old fishing vessels go off the coast of Iceland.
The weather in the North Atlantic is often bad.
Storms and huge waves attack the men.
The ice that piles up on deck due to the freezing spray and can capsize the ships is also a danger.
It is estimated that more than 6,000 fishermen drown between 1835 and 1980 - from Hull alone.
Sorrow and loss are as much a part of the port city as the cries of the seagulls over the Docklands.
In the media, Hull is called "Sad City", the sad city.
Three downfalls in a few weeks
The men only get 36 days off a year;
the norm is that after three weeks at sea they have 72 hours shore leave.
In order for the ships to go to sea, the shipowners can use almost any means.
The trips of the "Christmas Cracker Crews" in the days around Christmas are notorious.
The holidays with their families are sacred to the trawler casts.
The shipowners, however, do not want to lose business around the New Year's days, when the catch is particularly expensive.
That is why the agents are recruiting ignorant beginners, old drunkards and even problem cases of the Salvation Army.
In early 1968 three disasters hit the port city and the north of England:
On January 11th, the trawler »St.
Romanus «with 20 men in a heavy storm on the North Sea.
Because there is no radio operator and no emergency equipment, the trawler is missing.
Nobody finds out about the sinking until January 26th.
On this day, another bad news spreads in the docks and pubs of Hull: The "Kingston Peridot" with 20 fishermen sank off Iceland.
There are no survivors.
A few days later, on February 4th, the trawler "Ross Cleveland" was hit in a fjord near Isafjordur in northwest Iceland.
In a storm the ship runs on a rock.
Only one fisherman, 28-year-old Harry Eddom, escapes to the shore and staggers half frozen to a farm.
He waits there until he is found.
58 fishermen are dead. The events go down in the maritime history of Great Britain as the "Hull Triple Disaster".
Lillian Bilocca, a worker in a fish factory, turns her grief into anger.
She and three other women organize a protest in the fish factory and in the pubs of Hull.
She writes a letter to the chiefs of the fishing fleet: “You gentlemen at the top, these fellows live under conditions that nobody can imagine.
You live hard.
They work hard.
You die hard. "
"Big Lil" goes on the barricades
Just women demonstrate against living conditions in the macho world of fishermen?
The newspapers take up the protest immediately.
The activists are called "headscarf revolutionaries" because of their typical headgear.
Big Lil 'stories are even pushing the Vietnam War off the front pages.
The women describe their demands in the »Fishermen's Charter«: The safety standards must be greatly improved.
A radio operator is required to ride on board every trawler.
Weather forecasts need to be precise, equipment and medical care need to be significantly improved.
Lillian Bilocca collects more than 10,000 signatures in less than ten days.
For the conditions at the time, without the Internet and social media, an unbelievable achievement.
She instigates demonstrations in the docks of Hull and wants to prevent boats from leaving without a radio operator.
Once, four police officers have to prevent "Big Lil" from jumping onto the deck of a trawler that is about to leave the pier.
The bosses of the fishing industry are furious.
The fish factory fires Lillian Bilocca in revenge.
She is insulted, slandered and even threatened with death.
Unionists who supported her in the beginning turn away from her.
But she continues.
Your revolution is growing.
Their courage saves many fishermen
Finally, England's Prime Minister Harold Wilson agrees to meet her.
Bilocca had previously threatened to show up at his vacation home.
A little later, the requirements of the "Charter" are incorporated into the regulations and occupational health and safety laws.
Lillian Bilocca won her revolution.
In six weeks, the worker from the fish factory achieves more for protection at sea than the union bosses have been able to do in years.
For them, victory only brings defeat.
She couldn't find a job in Hull for a long time and only after years did she work as a cleaning lady.
When she died in August 1988, the Times newspaper published a small obituary in London.
This not only falsifies the supposedly "often hysterical" protest;
there is talk of violence that never occurred during the actions.
The author even misspelled the name Lillian Bilocca.
Only late after her death does Lillian Bilocca get the recognition she deserves.
The author Brian W. Lavery retells their story.
A house wall in Hull is painted in her honor, and the BBC is broadcasting a series about the "headscarf revolutionary" whose courage saved the lives of thousands of fishermen.
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