CHAPTER II 



THE GKEAT FISHEEIES 



Every one b}'' this time knows that the country's supply 

 of fish comes mainly from the high seas, and is brought to land 

 by the deep-sea fishing fleets. Some few Britons now, at length, 

 understand that there are two main fleets — the Drifter Fleet, 

 which circumnavigates the coast, basing itself on different 

 ports in succession, almost from year's end to year's end, in 

 search of herrings ; and the Trawler Fleet, which exploits the 

 sea-bed for the ' white fish ' who feed on the bottom. So much 

 is understood. What is not, as a rule, made clear is that the 

 Trawler Flpet is divided into several squadrons. Let us take 

 them in order of seniority. 



1 . The South-Eastern Squadron. This is the lineal descendant 

 of the old sailing fleet, and it fishes historic grounds developed 

 in the middle of the last century by smacksmen under pioneer 

 skippers and ' admirals ' — more than one of whom has subse- 

 quently been the owner of a fleet of steam trawlers. A line 

 between the Tees and the Skaw across the North Sea forms, 

 roughly, the northern boundary of this squadron's ' sector ' ; 

 the southern boundary is a line from the North Foreland to 

 Grisnez ; and east and west the squadron can fish up to the 

 three-mile limit. It covers, therefore, the southern shallows of 

 the North Sea, where the soundings run from 10 to 40 fathoms. 

 These grounds were originally explored by men ' in sail ' 

 looking for soles, and they still produce nearly half the sole 

 catch. But the squadron now depends mainly on haddock, 

 cod, and plaice. Its English vessels caught some 98,000 tons 

 in 1913. An average ' voyage ' in April is somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood of 14 tons. 



2. The North-Eastern Squadron fishes that portion of the 

 North Sea which lies to the north of the Tees -Skaw line inside 

 the 100-fathom limit, and its ground lies chiefly between the 

 30 and the 60-fathom line. The big haddock, cod, and plaice 

 from the deeper banks form a large proportion of its catch. In 

 1913 the English catch was about 61,000 tons.' 



3. The Northern Deep-Sea Squadron is made up of the big 

 powerful vessels who first found, and then worked, in 1891, the 

 Iceland, Shetland, and Faeroe Banks for cod, haddock, coalfish, 



2497 T, 



