Courtesy of Scottish Screen Archive

Caller Herrin' (1947) was one of over fifty short films on Scottish subjects made in the period during and immediately after the war. Scottish-based film production companies won commissions from the Ministry of Information (later the Central Office of Information) to produce these public information films, and it was largely this body of work that enabled them to continue in business.

Herring was one of the few foods that were not rationed during the war. The domestic fleets put to sea braving the dangers of submarine attack, to land huge catches of fish to feed a nation beleaguered on all sides. In the immediate postwar period, new scientific methods of quick freezing were being developed as the fishing fleets replaced their boats and re-equipped their vessels for peacetime.

Janet McBain

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