EMDEN JOINT-STOCK HERRING-FISHERY ASSOCIATION. 7G9 



The summer fisheries are chiefly carried on soiUli of the Dogger bank, 

 more or less near the German coast. During summer calm nights often 

 oblige the vessels to lie still. Associations are therefore formed for 

 carrying on these fisheries in common. A smack or a rapidly sailing 

 clipper takes all the fish to market and returns with ice, provisions, &c. 

 A special company owning five steamei's supplies the London market in 

 this way. The fisliing-fleet, consisting of several hundred vessels which 

 these steamers serve, carries empty boxes in which the fish are packed 

 on board between layers of ice. To transmit these boxes while at sea is 

 especially during winter difflcult and dangerous. During that season 

 each vessel prefers to fish on its own account, and take the fish to mar- 

 ket. In November they begin to fish some degrees north of the Dog- 

 ger bank, gradually going farther south. This explains the fact that 

 during the winter mouths the small German fishing-vessels which dare 

 not venture far from the coast do not catch many fish. If Germany, there- 

 fore, wishes to be entirely independent of foreign countries with regard 

 to her supply of salt-water fish, it can only be done by fitting out "log- 

 gers," for they are just as good vessels for high sea fishing as the Eng- 

 lish smacks, carry the same quantity of sail, and are just as strong. 



All reports agree that the most profitable season for the English 

 smacks is from December to April, and that the unfavorable results of 

 the other months are thereby counterbalanced; yea more, that this sea- 

 sou has contributed its share to the prosperity of a number of English 

 ])orts, such as Hull, Grimsby, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, &c. It is a fact 

 that during winter the sum of $I00-$G0O is realized as a rule at every 

 voyage of 2-3 weeks, and that a sum of $900 per voyage is no rare oc- 

 currence. 



As in Germany crews cannot be gotten as cheap as in England, where 

 two men and three boys compose the whole crew of a smack, the 

 "logger" can of course not obtain the same brilliant results during the 

 winter fisheries as the English smack ; but this is not required either, 

 because the herring-fisheries prove a suflncient source of profit to the 

 Emden "logger." As our "logger" loses several weeks by its voyage 

 from Emden and back to the fishing-grounds near the English coast, it 

 will not realize more than $2,500 during a winter, while the smack will 

 during the same time realize $3,000. The experience of the Oldenburg 

 has shown that of the sum realized from $1,500 to $1,750 have to be 

 counted off for wages of crew, repairs, &c. Several winters must pass 

 before any reliable calculations can be made. 



The last winter, 1870-'77, has been an unlucky one for the English 

 smacks, and the three Emden "loggers," have unfortunately had the 

 same experience. After the three vessels had by dint of enormous ex- 

 ertions been fitted out for the winter fisheries by the middle of Decem- 

 ber, and every one hoped that toward Christmas and New Year they 

 would share in the brilliant results of that period, they had like the 

 English vessels to meet the most terrible storms. One of the mates lost 

 40 F 



