52 THE IMPOVERISHiMENT OF THE SEA. 



in 1S9G (vol. iv. pp. 114-21). Mr. Scott's patent modification of the 

 otter gear was fitted to some of the Granton Steam Fishing Company's 

 vessels in June, 1894, but it was not until the summer of 1895 that the 

 new gear began to be generally adopted by English steamers. During 

 his visit to Hull in August, 1895, Mr. Cunningham was informed by 

 Mr. Scott that the patent gear was then in use on sixteen or seventeen 

 steamers in that port, on eight in Granton, on one at Boston, two at 

 Grimsby, and two at Milford Haven, and Mr. Cunningham saw it on 

 one in Scarborough earlier in the same month. In addition to these 

 vessels, a large number of steamers were also fitted with otter trawls of 

 a somewhat different construction ; but there is no available means at 

 present of determining the total number of steamers which had adopted 

 the new gear by any particular date in the year. There is, however, 

 abundant evidence that as soon as the advantages of the beamless trawl 

 became generally understood the exchange was effected with great 

 rapidity. Mr. Ascroft, of Lytham, informs me that he was with the 

 Ited Cross fleet (Hull) on the Dogger when the otter trawl was first tried 

 there, on the steam trawler Madras, and that the difference between the 

 catches of this vessel and the steam beam trawlers was so great that, as 

 the boats went back to Hull for coal, they were not sent out again until 

 they had the otter gear fitted, even if it took a week or ten days, 



§ iv. Relative Efficiency of Liners. 



For estimating the catching power of the line fishing-boats (first class) 

 I am compelled in the present essay to depend upon evidence which 

 probably yields nothing but a rough approximation to the true values, 

 since precise information upon the pdint has been unavailable. One 

 difficulty arises from the fact that the sailing liners frequently devote 

 themselves to the herring fishery during the summer months ; and, 

 although this custom of combining two methods of fishery is more 

 especially found among the smaller boats, there is little to show to what 

 extent the custom prevails among vessels of the first class, to which my 

 statistics are limited. 



In the Report of the Sea Fishery Commissioners of 1879 (Buckland 

 and Walpole, p. 133) it is stated that the total annual catch of sixteen 

 large liners at Staithes might be estimated at 1,400 (2,000 - 600) tons — 

 an average of 87 tons per vessel. This figure, however, includes the 

 produce of the summer herring fishery from June to October. If a 

 deduction of from one-half to two-thirds of the total catch be made to 

 cover this item, the catch of bottom fish per vessel is reduced to an 

 average of from 29 to 43 tons. At this period the Grimsby trawlers 

 were catching from 45 to GO tons per vessel. 



Even the catch of the Grimsby codmen must be below that of the 



