Moray Firth

The Zulu sailing drifter, first developed at Lossiemouth in 1878, had a distinctive hull shape -a straight stem and a very raked (sloping) sternpost. the Zulu design was very popular with herringmen around Wick and along the Moray Firth. The biggest of these boats were 70 to 84 feet long, with a big carrying capacity. By the late 1890s, many Zulus carried a steam capstan to haul the 'tarry' leader rope attached to the boat's fleet of drift nets. In the 1890s, as many as a hundred Inverness-registered Zulus and Scaffies made Aberdeen Harbour their base for summer herring fishing.