12 
summer months some of them fished with hand-lines on 
the north coast of Scotland, some of them were occupied 
in carrying lobsters from Norway and Sweden to the 
London market, and others were engaged in the whiting 
and haddock fishing. They all used to bring their live 
cargoes to Gravesend and thence sent them forward from 
day to day to Billingsgate market. 
In the year 1851 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln- 
shire Railway Company had completed their magnificent 
new docks and line at Grimsby ; and the direct connection 
established by this rail with London and the great pro- 
vincial centres, together with the geographical position of 
the port with regard to the great fishing banks, recom- 
mended it as the most convenient fishing centre on the 
east coast. 
Smack owners from Harwich, Greenwich and Barking 
commenced to send their vessels here periodically; a 
company in connection with the Manchester, Sheffield, 
and Lincolnshire Railway Company was formed, and for 
some years employed twelve smacks—one half the number 
in the lining, and the other half in the trawling business. 
g 
A market and a dock for the special use of the fish trade 
were constructed in 1855; and so rapid has been the 
growth of the trade from that time to the present day 
that the efforts of the railway company in extending the 
dock accommodation have hardly been able to keep pace 
with the increasing trade. 
I have not been able strictly to arrive at the relative figures 
of tonnage, but I shall not be far from the fact, and perhaps 
near enough for the purpose of this paper, if I compute the 
tonnage of all fishing vessels in Grimsby in 1855 at 800 
tons, half of which were cod smacks. At present the 
tonnage actually belonging to the port is not far short of 
40,000, 8000 tons of which is represented by about 120 cod 
