THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 63 



trawling smacks, for it was stated at Grimsby in evidence before the 

 Eoyal Commission of 1863 that "a trawl smack as a rule will catch 

 a greater weight of fish than a liner, but it is of less value " (§ 15,932). 



At Billingsgate, before the same Commission, it was stated, even at 

 that time, that the " liners did not bring more than 10 per cent. (5 per 

 cent, to 10 per cent.) of the fish coming to this market " (§ 12,862) ; and 

 again, "A trawler catches ten times the weight of fish obtained by a 

 line boat, day for day, or year for year, taking the twelve months 

 round" (§§ 12,867-8). 



This latter estimate no doubt refers to the average catch of all line 

 boats, large and small. 



A similar contrast exists between the catches of the modern steam 

 trawlers and liners. Thus in March of the present year, ten Aberdeen 

 steam liners were reported to have landed 28 tons of fish at one time, 

 i.e. an average of 56 cwts. per boat per voyage. Simultaneously thirty- 

 six steam trawlers at the same port landed 250 tons — an average of 

 138 cwts. per boat per voyage {Fish Trades Gazette, March 31st, 1900, 

 p. 17). Thus the average catch of the steam liner was only two-fifths as 

 great as that of the steam (otter) trawler, if we assume that the voyages 

 made by the two classes of boat were of equal duration. In view, 

 however, of the liner's dependence upon bait, this assumption is not 

 likely to be strictly correct, even in these days of ice and preserved 

 bait. Moreover, as the number of steam liners during the decade has 

 not increased at the same rate as the number of trawlers (twofold 

 instead of fourfold), it is necessary to ensure that their catching power 

 shall not be under-estimated, since any serious deficit would reduce the 

 estimated total catching power to a greater extent in the earlier than 

 the later years, and so conduce towards a spurious fall in the estimated 

 average catches. 



If, therefore, we allow to the steam liner a catching power of three- 

 fourths that of the otter trawler, any error in the estimate is likely to 

 be rather in the nature of an exaggeration of the true efficiency than 

 otherwise. This would be equivalent in 1898 to the catching power of 

 six sailing trawlers — that is to say, it would be practically identical 

 with the estimated catching power of a steam trawler fitted with beam, 

 instead of otter, trawls (see Table X., p. 48). Assuming that the 

 efficiency of the steam liners has increased during the decade in 

 proportion to the increase in average registered tonnage, the same 

 factors may therefore be applied to the numbers of steam liners as to 

 the steam beam trawlers, in order to convert their catching power into 

 the proper number of " smack-equivalents." The results of this conver- 

 sion are set forth in Table F (p. 68). The aggregate catching power of 

 the steam liners is there seen to have nearly trebled in 1897 as compared 



