46 FISHING INDUSTRY OF PLYMOUTH. 



1. Payment of trawlers. 2. Payment of drifters. 3. 

 Payment of hookers. 4. Systems of payment compared. 

 5. Insurance of trawlers. 6. Insurance of drifters and 

 hookers. 7. Methods of selling and buying fish. 



I. — Methods op Fishing. Localities Fished and Fish 



Caught. 



1. Beam Trawling. 



Traivling Smacks. — The boats used for beam trawling 

 in Plymouth average about forty-three tons (43"62) ; they 

 are cutter or yawl rigged^ and are manned by a skipper, two 

 men, and a boy ; tliey are, as a rule, very fast sailers and 

 excellent sea boats. 



In confirmation of this latter statement it is most satis- 

 factory to be able to state that, in spite of the heavy weather 

 frequently encountered by the smacks, and the great traffic 

 carried on over a considerable portion of the fishing grounds, 

 during the last seven years there have been but two traw- 

 lers lost, one at sea and one in the Sound. Both losses were 

 due to collision. Two lives only have been lost during this 

 time, both these being lives of men drowned in the former 

 of these two accidents. 



There are seventy-seven trawlers now sailing from 

 Plymouth, for the most part owned by fishermen, many of 

 whom are skippers of their own boat. 



For some years the size of trawlers has been on the 

 increase, the newer vessels being the largest in the port, 

 viz. fifty-five tons. At the present time, however, there is 

 a tendency on the part of the fishermen to prefer smaller* 

 boats, about forty tons. Those of them in favour of this 

 change assert — 



1. That there is less wear and tear in the smaller than 

 in the larger boats, and the cost of keeping the boat in good 

 order is consequently proportionately less in the smaller 

 than in the larger boats. 



2. That the small boats catch, in spite of the smaller 



