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smacks, while most of the cod vessels from Greenwich, 
Harwich, and also from Holland, trade here regularly during 
the long-line season. The population of Grimsby has during 
the same period increased from 10,000 to about 40,000. 
This great development of the line-fishing at Grimsby 
has not been without its effect on the other fishing towns 
which Ihave named. Barking and some of the other places 
referred to have retired from the trade altogether, and 
Greenwich and Harwich are now the only other places from 
which cod vessels take part in the line-fishing, and that only 
to a small extent. 
A number of yawls or luggers from Filey, Scarborough, 
Hartlepool, and the Tyne, engage in deep sea lining during 
the spring of the year, but they are not vessels with wells, 
and can only be said to be partly engaged in the trade. 
A cod smack is a fore-and-aft dandy rigged vessel, with 
foremast and mizen-mast. Those built of late years vary 
from seventy to eighty-five tons, and we have some of 
over 120 tons register. The usual dimensions are sixty- 
five to seventy feet length of keel, twenty to twenty-one feet 
beam, and eleven feet to eleven feet six inches depth amid- 
ships; in ordinary ballast trim they draw about eleven feet 
of water aft, and from seven to seven and a half feet forward. 
They are as a rule fast sailers, and their seagoing qualities 
cannot be surpassed. I make no doubt that Christopher 
Columbus and Captain Cook would have rejoiced to have 
had such vessels for their expeditions. They are built 
principally of oak, and fitted with cabin and forcastle ; 
the master and five men occupy the cabin, and four to six 
boys the forecastle. 
In the centre of the vessel a space of nearly one third of 
the length of the keel is set apart for the well; this is 
divided off by strong bulkheads, or well-heads as they are 
