28 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
they capture. The vessels engaged in the fishery are larger 
and better furnished than the usual run of Scottish herring- 
boats. This is necessary, because they carry a crew of from 
ten to thirteen persons, and remain out fishing a night or two. 
The boats are full-decked, have two, and sometimes three, 
masts, and are strongly built, so as to stand the stress of 
weather. These vessels carry each a suite of 100 nets, each 
net being 48 feet long by 30 feet deep. 
The labour involved on board of these boats is consider- 
able. The men shoot the nets and haul them in oftener than 
once in the course of the night—the fishing commencing at 
sunset. The mode of work is well-planned throughout, 
every man having his allotted duty to perform ; one person 
looks after the corks and floats, another, with an assistant, 
pays out the netting, whilst another has charge of the 
Warp-rope to which the nets are fixed. After being ex- 
amined about every two hours, when it is thought a suff- 
cient number of fish have struck, the nets are hauled on 
board by means of the steam-driven capstan, now gene- 
rally used by North Sea boats, and being passed over a 
horizontal pole, the herrings are “shook out,” falling 
into the hold: each net as it is emptied being carefully 
stowed away in its appointed place, to be ready for use 
when the time arrives to make another shot; in fact, the 
discipline in these herring vessels is about as exacting as 
on board a man-of-war. When the herrings are got on 
board there is still more work to accomplish: they have 
to be “roused” with salt, and, after that operation has been 
carefully performed, have to be packed carefully away in 
the hold; and, as on some occasions the nets are full of 
fish, there is plenty of work for all hands. 
It is quite certain that the hardy fishers of Yarmouth 
do not eat the bread of idleness in the times of herring- 
