The skippers were unhappy yesterday they could get nothing in writing from their federal Government about where they stood. They hoped for a written assurance they would not be charged before they set off today for the three-day sailing home.

"Everything we've heard from Ottawa has been through the media,'' said Capt.

Merle Smiley of Port Medway, Nova Scotia, owner of the longliner Renee and Trevor .

"They say through the media they want us out of here, but they won't say what they're going to do to us,'' added Capt. Wayne Nickerson of the Eastpack II .

Both East Coast fishing boats rushed back to Bermuda after a Canadian Fisheries patrol vessel seized the Canadian longliner Stephen B about 250 miles north of the Island and towed her to Halifax to face charges.

Her captain, Merle Goreham, is to appear in Magistrates' Court in Halifax on Tuesday, charged with fishing inside the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation convention area without a licence.

In all, seven Canadian fishing boats escaped the closure of the Canadian cod fishery by buying permits to fish for swordfish and tuna within Bermuda's 200-mile protected zone this winter.

Two fishing boats, the Atlantic Horizon and the Atlantic Optimist , returned to Canada earlier and were not charged.

Besides the Renee and Trevor and the Eastpack II , the Canadian longliner Flying Dart remained in Bermuda yesterday. She was a late arrival and had yet to fish in the area, but her skipper was reportedly uncertain whether he would be charged as well.

Yesterday, the captains said they received a commitment over the telephone from Department of Fisheries and Oceans regional director Mr. John Angel that if they returned to Canada, they would not be charged.

But they could not get that promise in writing, and they were concerned that Mr. Angel appeared to say the exact opposite in a radio interview broadcast in Bermuda on Tuesday.

"He said he was misquoted,'' Mr. Smiley said. Mr. Angel could not be reached for comment.

"I pretty well know what we have to do,'' Mr. Smiley said. "My interpretation of it is that our Minister of Fisheries in Canada (the Hon.

Brian Tobin) is not going to sit down and negotiate anything as long as these boats are here.

"But you would think they would have to give us some kind of indication of what they're going to do. They're definitely not telling us anything.'' Mr. John Barnes, Bermuda's Fisheries director, said Government still hoped to set up a meeting between Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons and Mr.

Tobin.

"There are a number of issues that we want to get resolved,'' he said.

For one thing, Mr. Angel had been quoted as saying Canada could enforce the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation convention area even within Bermuda's 200-mile limit. Government disagreed, Mr. Barnes said.

Mr. Simons has said that if Bermuda does not license some foreign vessels to fish its territorial waters, the area would be open to all foreign fishing boats.

St. George's residents reported yesterday that Canadian military aircraft were seen flying over St. George's Harbour over the past week, apparently keeping an eye on the vessels.