IN THE RAYS ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF DEVON. 437 



Section I. 

 The Brixham Fishing-Grounds and Fishery Statistics. 



By 

 H. M. Kyle, M.A., D.Sc, 



Late Assistant Naturalist to the Association. 

 ( IFit/i Table A at end. ) 



There was a time, and that not many years ago, when the fishing-boats 

 of Brixham sailed round to the east coast of England and joined with 

 the fleets of London, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, and Grimsby in exploiting 

 the fishing-grounds of the North Sea.* This carries us back at least 

 two generations, but if one chose to hunt through old records, one 

 might find mention of Brixham and its fishing many centuries ago.t 

 The records may even go back to an earlier date than the Armada, but 

 its past history, though of exceptional interest, is of no importance to 

 our present purpose, and we may turn to the doings of the men of 

 Brixham at the present day. 



Even a casual visitor to this port of South Devon would notice at 

 once that the big boats are of two distinct types and sizes, the larger 

 ones ketch-rigged, the smaller mostly with the cutter rig, and this would 

 suggest differences in the size of gear employed and in the fishing- 

 grounds visited by each. The large boats are over fifty tons burden, 

 intentionally under-rigged, and able to go anywhere and stand any sea 

 short of that raised by a hurricane. The trawl they use is of forty-five 

 to forty-seven-foot beam. The small boats mostly run about twenty-five 

 tons, and in unsettled weather cannot venture more than a few miles 

 from land. Their trawl has only a thirty-six to forty-foot beam. 

 Between these two types of boat there is a third of about thirty tons, 

 which from the fact of its being modelled on the boats of liamsgate 

 is, like them, called a " Tosher." Very few boats of this type, however, 

 exist at Brixham. 



* For the place which Brixham has taken in the development of the North Sea fishing, 

 see E. W. L. Holt, Journ. M. B. A., vol. iii. p. 363. 



t See Holdsworth, Deep Sea Fishing, who suggests that Drake used the Brixham men 

 and boats against the Spaniards. 



