John Branston's postcard shows Elisabeth II, SM237, on Brighton beach - notice the arches and capstan in the background ("Your memories", The Argus Weekend, June 29).

Like most Brighton fishing boats, she was registered at Shoreham but her skipper and, later, owner was George "Young Mike" Andrew of a well-known Brighton fishing family. At the age of 21 (circa 1887) he had skippered an earlier boat named Elisabeth so I guess that is why SM237, built a few years before the First World War, was Elisabeth II.

As to Silly Sussex, that is supposed to be derived from the Old English "saelig", meaning happy or blessed - not so silly, after all.

Some years ago, I was privileged to meet Miss Nellie Andrew, one of "Young Mike's" daughters, then living alone in what had been the family house on Vere Road, Brighton. She told me her father had skippered and later owned two large fishing luggers, Elisabeth II (originally built for Mr Johnstone of Uckfield) and Belinda, working off Brighton beach. Both were laid-up for sale on the beach during the Thirties but, finding no buyer, were finally broken up in 1940.

Brighton and Hove Gazette described the old man just after his 89th birthday, in 1955, as "looking every bit a fisherman. A black kerchief is knotted around his throat and small gold rings pierce his ears. He went to sea with his father when he was 11." His father was George "Old Mike" Andrew, one-time skipper of the fishing boat Martha and Mary, 347SM. Most of the fishermen had nicknames but their meaning is usually obscure to outsiders and I have no idea why the Andrews, father and son, were known as Mike.

Nellie Andrew had once owned the family Bible with entries about their relatives but she had lost track of it some years before I met her.

Perhaps a reader might know about the nickname or the whereabouts of the Bible?

-Mike Strong, mikestrong46@hotmail.com