OF THE GRIMSBY TRAWL FISHERY. 3638 
Cuar. I1J.—Awn Ovriine or tHe Risk or TRAWLING IN THE 
Norru Sra, 
Although the North Sea trawling industry has long exceeded in 
importance that which is carried on along the rest of the sea-board of 
the United Kingdom, it is probably well known to most people that this 
method of fishing is not, so to speak, indigenous to the district, but 
of comparatively late introduction. 
No serious attempt at a history of the origin and progress of 
trawling has yet been made, and it may be feared that by the time it 
is attempted some attention will also have to be given to its decline. 
The few remarks which I have to make on the subject here are put 
forward in all diffidence. They contain only the barest outline of 
the history, and rest entirely upon information which I have col- 
lected from old fishermen, and others who have taken an interest 
in the trade. I know of no documentary evidence to which refer- 
ence can be made, but from the general harmony of oral accounts 
derived from different sources I believe the facts, as far as they go, 
are approximately correct. 
The date of the discovery of the trawl, or of any fishing instrument 
at all resembling it, is altogether uncertain. On our own coasts the 
doubtful honour of its introduction seems to have been disputed by the 
fishermen of Brixham and Barking, but without claim on either side 
to any very remote antiquity of practice. It seems possible, however, 
that a fearful engine described as a “‘ Wondyrchoum,” against the 
use of which petitions were presented in the Parliamentary Session 
of 1576—7, may have more or less resembled a trawl. 
Be this as it may, it seems at any rate certain that beam- 
trawling had been established as a regular industry at Brixham at a 
period considerably antecedent to the outbreak of the French wars. 
The boats in use then were quite small, and the trawl-gear could be 
carried with ease on a man’s shoulder. ‘The war naturally interfered 
greatly with the prosecution of a fishery on the south coast, although 
im some ways, less reputable than the practice of their legitimate 
industry, some of our south-coast fishermen seem to have found it not 
altogether a source of loss. 
At the close of the war in 1815 there was a revival of the trawl- 
fishery, and enterprise began to manifest itself in the search for new 
grounds, I believe that about this time an attempt was made by the 
Brixham men to establish themselves at Dublin; but the honour does 
not seem to have been appreciated by the native fishermen, and the 
adventure was abandoned. About 1818 we hear that a certain 
