Lillebåten

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Abstract

The study focuses on the lillebåt, a small clinker-built boat central to the longline fisheries of Bohuslän prior to motorization. Although modest in size, the lillebåt operated in the North Sea and North Atlantic as an essential working craft, enabling the setting and hauling of long lines with thousands of baited hooks and the handling of catch under hazardous conditions. Despite its importance, it has largely remained in the shadow of larger motherships in historical representation. Drawing on archival sources, photographs, museum collections, models, and folklore records, the study explores the boat's material and cultural dimensions through the analytical lenses of mobility and disappearance. It traces the lillebåt's movements across sea spaces, between vessels, and eventually into museums and memory. By situating the boat within shifting technological, social, and ritual contexts, the article highlights how maritime material culture both vanishes and persists, revealing complex relationships between humans, artifacts, the sea, and fish.