266 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



solved this problem in 1866, by sending out a lugger built 

 upon a model from Boulogne. The vessel had as yet more 

 hemp than cotton in her fleet ; she had upon the whole 

 not a favourable catch, and she began to fish three weeks 

 late, and thence did not share in "hunting' 1 prices. In 

 spite of these disadvantages, she covered her building and 

 equipping expenses, including two complete fleets in six 

 voyages, and in the first year yielded a net return of thirty- 

 seven per cent. The splendid success of this first lugger 

 in the Dutch fleet, named by her owner the Scheveningen y 

 after his residence, was the signal of a rapid revolution in 

 the country's herring-fishery. Four luggers were launched 

 in 1866 ; and the number increased very rapidly in the next 

 years. All new ships built were either luggers or cutters ; 

 and the wharves on the Maas had a busy time of it. The 

 old " hookers " were sometimes sold off before being worn 

 out; and the transformation was so rapid that, in 1872-3 

 and 1875-6, there was actually a decrease in the strength 

 of the herring fleet,* owing solely to old vessels being sold 

 off faster than new ones could be built. The following: 



o 



figures show the progress of this most important reform : 



* See Appendix K. 



t The stand-still in lugger-building in 1872 is apparent, not real. 

 Six luggers were in that year transferred to a German herring 

 company formed at Emden, whose directors prevailed upon a Dutch 



