364 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
number of Brixham trawlers migrated eastwards, and established 
their headquarters at Dover, trawling in Rye Bay and the 
neighbouring grounds. In or about 1821 the North Sea may said 
to have been first reached, since at that time the Brixham men 
began fishing off Ramsgate. The chief ground seems to have been 
the New or Sandettie Bank, where fine takes of turbot were made for | 
some time, and a more or less regular system of transporting fish to 
London was now organised. 
The tide of migration crept slowly northwards, as new grounds 
were discovered and in turn exhausted, and about 1828 the system 
of “fleeting ’’ seems to have been first adopted. Certain boats, 
instead of returning to port as soon as the catch had been made, 
banded themselves into fleets, and the catch of the whole fleet would 
be collected every day by a fast “ cutter,” and conveyed to market. 
The system appears to have been organised by fish merchants, who 
found the cutters and paid contract prices for the fish delivered. 
It prevailed only during the summer months. Harwich was the 
port chiefly engaged in these operations, but Barking seems to have 
had considerable importance as a trawling port either at this time or 
a little later. The Brixham men, I believe, were in the habit of 
returning home for the most part in the winter, and, throughout the 
migration, the most northerly ports reached were always used at 
first as summer stations only. 
About 1850 the discovery of the productive grounds alone the 
Dutch coast gave a great impetus to the trade, and smacks increased 
both in number and average tonnage. Brixham and Ramsgate seem 
to have had an aggregate of about fifty-five sail engaged in trawling 
operations. Local enterprise opened out certain fishing grounds off 
Yarmouth and Lowestoft ; trawlers were hired for this purpose from 
Ramsgate and Barking, and the fish, chiefly soles, were despatched 
to London in hght waggons, with relays of horses at various posts. 
The Dogger was certainly worked by trawlers some time between 
1830 and 1840, but it does not appear that it was at first a very 
remunerative ground. Haddock were of little or no value, and the 
Dogger plaice are said at first to have been large coarse fish. Boats 
continued to push northwards, and before 1840 Hull and Scarborough 
were summer trawling stations, but very little frequented in the 
winter. The average tonnage was about twenty-five to thirty-five. 
One of the most important events in the history of the industry 
was the discovery, in the winter of 1837, of the now famous sole- 
ground known as the Great Silver Pit. The master of a Hull 
trawler, William Sudds by name, being blown out of his reckoning 
by heavy weather, had the curiosity to shoot his gear in the unusual 
depth of water which his soundings revealed. The result was 
