FISIllN(i STATIONS— ENCLAND. 257 



property, the ground being rented from tlie Lord of 

 tlie Manoi'. 



Goole stands on the register as the station for six 

 smacks, but they all sail from Grimsby, although the 

 iesidence of their owner is at the former port. 



It is now nearly thirty years since Hull became a 

 trawling station. There were one or two vessels be- 

 longing to the port previously; but about 1845 there 

 was a migration thither from Brixham and Ramsgate, 

 and forty trawlers fished from Hull in that year. It 

 was soon after the discovery of the famous Silver Pit; 

 and this led to the systematic prosecution of the North 

 Sea trawl-fishery. The success attending these vessels 

 soon induced other smack-owners to settle at Hull, 

 new vessels were turned out every year, and in 1863 

 the fleet consisted of nearly 270 trawlers, notwith- 

 standing the fact of a few vessels having left Hull 

 for Grimsby, as already mentioned. Since 1863 there 

 has been a further increase, and the register for 1872 

 shows 313 smacks averaging 55 tons N.M. These 

 vessels are all deep-sea trawlers, Hull having no con- 

 nection with the cod fishery which is carried on so 

 successfully from Grimsby. The trawlers are of the 

 same description at both places, the modern vessels 

 being much larger than the old ones, and the ketch-rig 

 is the one generally adopted for them. 



Before ice became so generally used as it is at pre- 

 sent, the Hull smacks usually fished in fleets and sent 

 their fish in every day by whichever vessel was going 

 home. The custom then was to stay out for six weeks 

 at a time, and there was a constant succession of smacks 

 joining and leaving the fleet. Special carriers were 

 not employed to attend on the Hull smacks, but each 

 vessel in turn performed that service as her period of 



