EMDEN JOINT-STOCK HERRING-FISHEEY ASSOCIATION. 753 



highways of commerce, it may be supposed that those traders who had 

 taken contracts for furnishing fish must have made out pretty well, so 

 that every one in Emden has favorable recollections of the herring-fish- 

 eries. 



It will, therefore, be easily understood that ever since the old herring- 

 fisheries had come to an end in 1857, wishes were from time to time 

 expressed to have them flourish again. People were undecided, how- 

 ever, whether they should follow the advice of the motto over the chief 

 entrance to the Emden city hall, Concordia res parvw crescunt, or whether 

 they were to take comfort from another motto. In spe et silentio fortitudo 

 nostra, which is placed in a somewhat out-of-the-way corner near the stair- 

 case, and is not seen by every visitor of the three hundred year old build- 

 ing, which is an eloquent witness of Bmden's former splendor. In 1871 it 

 was at last resolved to examine the flourishing Dutch sea-fisheries. The 

 fav^orable reports which had come from there were all corroborated by this 

 examination. The German Fishery Association gave encouragement 

 by promising to support a new joint-stock company by its influence. In 

 the course of this winter the German joint-stock company bought of the 

 firm of Kruthoffer & Co., in Ylaardiugen, six " loggers," with everything 

 belonging to them, and the crews which had already enlisted on these 

 "loggers" remained faithful to the new enterprise in spite of some very 

 violent attacks in the Dutch papers. 



In May, 1872, these vessels came to Emden, whence during the follow- 

 ing month they started out on a herring-fishery amid the cheers of the 

 population. The head of the above-mentioned firm had been induced 

 to become the technical leader of the enterprise. It had been his wish 

 that a joint-stock company might be started with a capital of $2IG,000, 

 he to become one of the shareholders and take one-tenth of the shares. 

 The first payment of 40 per cent, would have sufficed to commence 

 the fisheries with the above-mentioned six vessels. As, according to the 

 experience of Dutch fishers, a capital of $10,800 was required for every 

 "logger," it was his idea to make a payment of 10 to 15 per cent, every 

 year and build 2 to 3 "loggers," till the whole capital had been paid in 

 and a fleet of 20 vessels had at the same time been secured. 



It seemed almost impossible for a city of moderate means, which had 

 just escaped from the yoke of a second-rate state (Hanover), and had 

 entered the Prussian monarchy with the best intentions and great ex- 

 pectations, to raise the necessary capital. The hope that help might 

 come from other parts of Germany soon proved delusive, for the frtilures 

 of some former large -fishery enterprises were yet too fresh in the mem- 

 ory of the public. It availed nothing to show that these failures did 

 not prove anything in the present case, because those former enterprises 

 had never been engaged in the herring-fisheries, and an examination of 

 the Dutch fisheries had proved conclusively that it was just the herring- 

 fisheries which, by the introduction of many improvements, had laid 

 the foundation of profitable fishing enterprises in Holland, and that her- 

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