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matter what risk they ran. He stood there as the repre- 
sentative of 3,000 men and boys, and felt that he must do 
his duty and speak the truth on this matter. With regard 
to the loss in the Hull fleet, it was contended that three- 
quarters of the damage would never occur if they were not 
crowded together in such large numbers. Any sea-going 
man would say that if he had a fine ship he did not fear a 
gale of wind provided he had plenty of sea room and no 
company ; but if he was surrounded by vessels nearly as 
thick as the chairs in this room, he had little chance, if it 
were a dark or rainy night, accompanied with a gale of 
wind. It was urged that there were a great many vessels 
lost out of Grimsby, but four out of nine lost on one 
occasion were either in connection with the Hull fleet, or 
close to them. He hoped the Conference would give 
this subject its earnest consideration, and would be enabled 
to see that the questions of loss of life, railway rates, 
and the destruction of immature fish were all connected 
together. The preservation of immature fish would give 
more mature fish for the vessels to catch on the single 
boating system, and the railway rates being lowered, would 
give the owners a fairer percentage on the fish their vessels 
caught, and would put on one side the fleeting system 
during the winter altogether. He believed that if any man 
could manage to get an Act of Parliament passed which 
would abolish fleeting for six months during the winter, in 
days to come his name would be written in letters of gold. 
He was unable to go into any practical methods of pre- 
venting the loss of life at sea, the short time allotted to 
each speaker having expired, But he desired to make one 
suggestion that, is, that deep-sea fishing vessels should be 
fitted with iron stanchions and nettings from their fore 
rigging to the taffrail, the stanchions about four feet in 
