FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 205 



at Dartmouth, which is the port of Brixham. These 

 would include all the Brixham " smacks " (as they are 

 always called), besides pilot boats and a few other 

 vessels. It is difficult to account for the mistake in 

 the number of trawlers said to have been given by 

 Lieutenant Hoblyn, unless he took the highest figures 

 on the register as representing the number of smacks 

 then existing ; he perhaps not having been aware that 

 the cancelled numbers of vessels lost or otherwise 

 removed were not again used. Mr. Barry appears, 

 however, to have been content with this information, 

 and to have understood the figures as referring to the 

 number of smacks actually working from Brixham, 

 which a very little inquiry would have shown to be 

 incorrect. Brixham has long been sending her men 

 and fishing vessels to other stations, where many of 

 them have permanently settled. Eamsgate, Dublin, 

 Hull, and other places have thus been colonized, but 

 those vessels have for many years afterwards remained 

 on the original register at Dartmouth. The number 

 of trawlers regularly working on the Brixham ground 

 in 1852 has been inquired into at Brixham, at our 

 request, with the result that at that time there were 

 only about 70 smacks, ranging from 23 to 35 tons, 

 instead of 221. 



When Mr. Barry made his second visit to the town, 

 in May, 1863, he reported having been struck with the 

 same appearance of prosperity which he observed in it 

 in 1852; but he explained this as being due to "its 

 progressive state of transition from a prosperous fishing 

 town to an important seaport," for he had heard at 

 the Custom House that the number of trawlers on 

 the register were then only 167. These he appears to 

 have again understood as all working from Brixham. 



