ing at least three sounding devices. At least two of them are 

 usually graph-type sounders, which give not only the depth of 

 water but also a record of both bottom and pelagic fish. Many 

 of these devices are able to magnify a particular range of depths 

 to enable skippers to see how near the fish are to the bottom or 

 how dense the shoal is. 



The latest type, the Explorator, is now being used by some 

 vessels but particularly by French trawlers. This gives a read- 

 ing ahead of the ship at an angle which varies with the depth 

 of water. It swings 20° to either side of the ship's head. Con- 

 sequently, if the fish reading is denser to starboard the skipper 

 pulls the ship in that direction to trawl on the heavier fishing. 



This apparatus is being tried in the North Atlantic and Arctic 

 grounds but it has not proved very successful so far. This may 

 be because of the greater depths in which we now fish — 150 to 

 350 fathoms. The device has, however, proved very successful 

 on pelagic fishing, particularly where the fish are normally 

 found in shoals. 



Most trawlers nowadays carry a speedometer. If, after 

 towing at 4 knots, the vessel suddenly steadies down to 3%, the 

 skipper, on reading this, will realize that he has a lot of fish or 

 mud in his net — or that he is in trouble for some other reason. 

 He will then decide to haul, lest he loses his gear together with 

 all the fish he has in it. Without the speedometer he might 

 continue towing until serious damage is done to his gear. 



British distant water trawlers carry very powerful radio sets, 

 easily capable of transmitting round the world. They are 

 known as "Globe Span" for this reason. They are fitted for 

 telephony also. Owners often speak daily to their ships in the 

 Arctic and across the Atlantic to Greenland, the Newfoundland 

 Banks and beyond. A smaller set with a range of possibly 500 

 miles is usually fitted in addition for ship-to-ship operation. 

 Moreover V.H.F. is available and private frequencies are 

 allotted. This allows all the vessels within a company's fleet 

 to talk to one another without the ships of other companies 

 listening in. It encourages cooperation within the company. 

 And cooperation is sorely needed, for British fishermen, if not 

 fishermen throughout the western world, tend to be secretive for 

 understandable reasons. 



There is a notable exception to this among the skippers of the 

 big freezer trawlers. They appear to have developed an inter- 

 national code of conduct which demands of each one to let all 

 the others know immediately he strikes good fishing and to give 

 his precise location. If he is found wanting in this respect, he 

 is thrown out of the "club" to his own great loss. The ex- 

 change of information of this kind is highly important if we 

 are to match up to the extensive fleeting operations of Russia 

 and others. 



Underwater television has been tried as a means of fish 

 finding but submarine light penetration in northern waters is 

 often poor. This is due to the density of plankton and other 

 organic matter. Consequently, in the waters mainly used by 

 our ships, this is not a practical proposition. 



Most of our ships carry two radars: one capable of at least 

 48 miles range and the reserve about 25 to 35 miles. A reserve 

 against breakdown is a highly prudent precaution. It is often 

 difficult to know, in the waters adjacent to many countries, 



where the limit line is without a really good radar. Straight 

 baselines are often drawn, not merely from headland to head- 

 land, but from one rock to another in the ocean. As a result, 

 a 12-mile fishery limit may be 50 miles or more from the nearest 

 landfall. In these conditions cross-bearings cannot be ob- 

 tained. Hence, it is dangerous to fish anywhere near a limit 

 line without a good radar. For similar reasons, British trawlers 

 usually carry two direction finders. 



Radar has some rather obvious additional uses in the navi- 

 gational field. But it is also very useful for fishing itself. A 

 buoy dropped on the location of good fishing allows an easy 

 return, by the use of radar, if fishing is interrupted by fog for 

 example. 



This point was brought home rather forcibly to me when in 

 the early 1950's I took a trip on one of our newest and largest 

 trawlers, with my eldest son and my nephew Tony Wilbraham, 

 who is with us today. It was on that same trip that I decided 

 never to have any crew positioned forward on any further 

 trawlers built by my Company. I saw too clearly the difficulties 

 in bad weather of the men getting from their living quarters to 

 midships for their food, and again going on watch. All our 

 ships since then have their crews positioned midships or aft; 

 they are able to get to the wheel-house or engine room without 

 going on to the open deck at all when on passage. 



I also decided on that trip never to have the wireless operator 

 sleeping in the wireless room. I found that the skipper would 

 not go into it during the early hours of the morning in case he 

 disturbed the sleeping operator. This was nonsense. The 

 skipper and the mate should have full access to the instruments 

 in the wireless room at all times. 



I have no doubt that there is still plenty for us to learn by 

 going to sea with our ships. But there is also a great deal to 

 be learned by research and development scientists, particularly 

 those in the mechanical and electrical engineering fields as 

 distinct from marine biology. Nowadays such scientists are 

 often to be found on our ships as a result of the new emphasis 

 we have given to research. 



We have spent considerable sums on attempts to develop a 

 more efficient trawl. In the process a great deal has been 

 learned about the hydrodynamics of towing a trawl through the 

 water. Indeed, a trawl of a greater mouth area has been de- 

 vised. But despite all the expenditure, all the expertise, all 

 the pure and applied research, the new trawl has caught no 

 more fish than the old. 



Many different types and shapes of otter-boards have been 

 tried but no great change has taken place. As of old, wooden 

 bobbins are still used, though most vessels use mainly steel and 

 rubber. There has, however, been a distinct improvement in 

 net materials. Most of our nets are made of synthetic fibres in- 

 stead of manila or sisal. One of our vessels actually made a 

 synthetic trawl last twelve months. These synthetics allow the 

 headline to be lifted a few feet higher with the aid of aluminum 

 floats and sometimes with kites. The drawback is that we 

 fish on such rough ground that we lose a lot of gear. It is 

 not unusual for our distant water trawlers to lose four, five or 

 even six thousand dollars worth of gear in one trip. 



31 



