14 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
probably in the case of speculative curers the blame is in 
many instances deserved ; and whenever misfortune over- 
takes a fishing community the curer is blamed as being in 
some way the cause of it. Young men anxious to become 
owners of a boat and to engage in the fishing on their own 
account, instead of continuing as the hired servants of other 
boatmasters, are often able to indulge their ambition by the 
aid of a speculative curer, who will supply all that is re- 
quired—boat and fishing-gear complete—on credit entirely, 
or partly for cash, and partly on credit as may be agreed 
upon, but not of course without some distinct advantage to 
himself in connection with such a speculative transaction. 
He will charge a higher price for the boat and its gear, and 
he will make a harder bargain with the owners for the 
produce ‘of their fishings. Such transactions occasionally 
terminate favourably for all connected with them ; a series 
of fortunate seasons enables the buyer of the boat to pay 
off his debt and to become a free fisher, at liberty to dispose 
of the proceeds of his industry to whomsoever he pleases. 
This will not appear in the least improbable when it is 
taken into consideration that by one evening’s work a boat’s 
crew may draw from the water a hundred pounds’ worth of 
herring. On the other hand, the owners of a vessel may 
work hard for a whole season, and scarcely obtain a larger 
sum than will pay the wages or shares of those hired to 
assist them. It is not to be expected that the industry of 
herring fishing will be barren of such incidents, so long as 
young men are ambitious and curers are willing to specu- 
late. The cost of a boat anda suite of nets, it may be added, 
is much greater than it used to be; herring boats are of a 
larger build now, most of them being decked or half-decked 
vessels, in place of the open yawls that were in almost 
universal use for the shore herring fishery twenty years ago. 
