NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 125 



greater distance from the coal and iron centres as compared witli Hull 

 and Grimsby, and the more northern ports generally. It is true that 

 the steamers could be built elsewhere, and the coal and other requisites 

 could be conveyed to Lowestoft. But the grounds in the immediate 

 vicinity are not extensive enough, nor productive enough, to enable a 

 steamer to pay a profit on her working, and if she is to work the grounds 

 more to the northward, she finds a more convenient port for landing and 

 working from, in Hull, or Grimsby, or Boston. In fact, the scarcity 

 of haddock and cod in the shallower waters of the narrow southern part 

 of the North Sea is alone enough to account for the absence of steam 

 trawlers, and their failure, when they have been tried, at the East 

 Anglian ports.* 



The number of trawling smacks at Lowestoft is stated, in the 

 Inspector's Eeport for 1894, to be 320. They are all ketch-rigged and 

 provided with steam capstans. In size they are smaller than the 

 majority of the Hull and Grimsby smacks, the largest being not more 

 than 60 tons. The crew of each consists of four men and a boy, 

 the latter acting as cook. It is a remarkable fact that all these vessels 

 land their fish at Lowestoft, each one landing its own. The boats 

 do not practise the fleeting system, and none of the fish is sent to 

 London direct from the smacks by sea. At Yarmouth it is just the 

 opposite, the trawlers there all fish in fleets, and their fish is conveyed 

 to London by steam carriers. Some few years ago there were few fish 

 buyers at Lowestoft ; the usual custom of smack owners was to send the 

 fish to London by railway, and there it was sold on commission by 

 the salesman at Billingsgate or other market. But now the fish is sold 

 by auction when landed, as at Grimsby or Hull, and the smack owners 

 and fishermen have no further interest in it. The same man is some- 

 times both buyer and smack owner, or has interests in both branches 

 of the business, but, nevertheless, the two branches are perfectly 

 distinct. I was assured, and the prosperity of the industry at 

 Lowestoft is good evidence of the fact, that prices have been better, and 

 the profits of fishermen and smack owners greater, under the present 

 system. This is certainly one case in favour of the much-accused 

 middleman. It is not difficult to understand that under the circum- 

 stances of the fish trade the " buyer " performs a very useful function. 

 It is his special business to know where to place his fish according to the 

 demand, and thus the Lowestoft smacks have the whole country opened 

 to them, instead of being restricted to Loudon, or any otlier single 

 market. Moreover, a man who has paid for the goods he has to 

 sell, and deals with them at his own risk, is naturally more interested 



• In the Inspector's Report for 1894 it is stated that 10 steamers were working from 

 Yarmouth. Probalily several of these act as carriers for the fleets. 



