OF THE GRIMSBY TRAWL FISHERY. 353 
charity is also said to have had a bad effect ; and, indeed, it can 
hardly conduce to a man’s independence to have benevolent old 
women advertising for his relief ! 
The deep-sea fishing is not entirely confined to trawling and lning, 
though these pursuits occupy by far the largest proportion of the 
Grimsby fishermen. In addition, a certain number of smacks are 
engaged in deep-sea oyster dredging, and there is a considerable 
fleet of ‘‘ whelkers.” Judged by Hull and Grimsby standards, the 
boats engaged in whelking are comparatively small, but since they 
remain at sea for prolonged periods they may conveniently be classed 
among the deep-sea craft; they are all sailing-vessels, as are also 
the larger boats engaged in oyster-dredging. Lining and trawling 
are carried on both by smacks and steam-vessels. The former are 
nearly all first-class vessels, varying from 95 to about 60 tons 
(displacement measurement), though there are a few liners of 
small size. The steam-vessels do not differ from each other 
greatly in dimensions, but they are still undergoing a process of evo- 
lution. The present fleet includes a few which are simply smacks 
into which engines have been put, while the rest have been laid down 
as steam-vessels, and exhibit various stages of improvement according 
to their age. The very newest departure is the adaptation of the 
petroleum engine to fishing purposes, an enterprise which has yet to 
stand the test of experience, but which seems to have all the elements 
which should conduce to a successful issue. Steam is not utilised in 
fishing purposes for motive power alone, since even the sailing 
trawlers are fitted with a small engine for heaving up the trawl and 
hoisting the sails. The lining vessels have no use for steam except 
as motive power, since, as the long-lines are hauled by the ship’s 
boat, no adaptation of steam-power to an ‘‘ iron man ”’ is practicable. 
These vessels are of course fitted with a well, while trawlers have an 
ice-room and fish-hold. At least one steam-vessel, the S.S. 
‘Aquarius’ of Grimsby, has a compartment which can be filled 
with water as a well for lining purposes, or pumped dry to serve as 
a fish-hold, and can therefore be utilised for either branch of the 
industry. In the majority of lining vessels there is no means of 
closing the apertures by which the water is admitted to the well, an 
obvious disadvantage when it is necessary to bring the vessel a con- 
siderable distance up an estuary or into a harbour, where the low 
specific gravity and general impurity of the water are prejudicial to 
the living freight. If the well is fitted with valves, good water can 
be brought in from the open sea, but there is a disadvantage on 
this side also, since, if the ship has to he in dock some hours before 
unloading, the water stagnates and the fish are asphyxiated. The 
leading spirits of the fishing community have, however, proved 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. II, NO. V (EXTRA NUMBER). 20 
