606 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



In 1827 and thus only twelve years before the Anglo-French 

 convention fixed a three-mile limit this Dutch ordinance was 

 renewed, and from that time few complaints were made of the 

 encroachments of Dutch herring-busses on the Scottish coast. 

 They continued to conduct their herring fishery, for the most 

 part, at distances ranging from twelve or fourteen to forty or 

 fifty miles, as they still do at the present day. 



As the disputes with the Dutch fishermen were thus amic- 

 ably arranged by the recognition of a six-mile zone of reserved 

 water, similar contentions sprang up, and continued for a long 

 period, with fishermen from France. In 1824, some years after 

 the peace, they began to frequent the coast of Scotland, and 

 they came in great numbers in each succeeding year, fishing at 

 the Shetlands, Orkneys, and along the north and east coasts 

 from Cape Wrath to Berwick, and down the English coast as 

 far as Flamborough Head. 1 Several circumstances connected 

 with the French fishery tended to provoke disputes. While 

 the Dutch fished from their busses at a distance from the coast, 

 where the largest and best herrings were caught, and were for- 

 bidden under heavy penalties from buying or selling herrings 

 while at sea, or even from entering any foreign port except by 

 reason of urgent necessity, the French fished, as a rule, near the 

 shore from small boats, which they even hired for the season, 

 not uncommonly from Scotch fishermen. They frequented the 

 Scottish ports; they bought herrings in large quantities sur- 

 reptitiously from native boats engaged to local fish-curers, for 



interest of this branch of national industry, the fishing should be carried on at 

 a farther distance from the main coast of Scotland (Schotschc vaste kust), and it is 

 determined and resolved as follows : ' ' Art. I. Het zal aan geenen Nederlandschen 

 visscher geoorloofd zijn, de groote of pekelharingvisscherij op eenen naderen afstand 

 der vaste kust van Schotland uitteoefenen, dan dien van twee uren hemelsbreedte 

 (20 zoodanige uren eenen graad uitmakende), noch onder eenig voorwendsel hoe ook 

 genaamd (alleen met uitzondering van het geval van dringende noodzakelijkheid 

 bij art. 22 der voormelde wet voorzien), gedurende den tijd dat hij de vangst van 

 pekelharing bedrijft, de vermelde kust op eenen minderen afstand te naderen." 

 The second article excepted the fishing at Shetland (Hitland) and Fair Isle (Fair- 

 hill), the autumn fishing on the English coast and off Yarmouth, and the fresh- 

 herring fishery ; but these exceptions were withdrawn by a royal decree of 5th 

 June 1827 (Staatscmirant, 1827, No. 278). It may be said that in 1818 the old 

 prohibition of fishing between the sandbanks and rocks of Norway, Shetland, and 

 Scotland had been renewed. Staatsblad, No. 15, 12th March 1818. 



1 Rapport fait en Execution des Ordrcs du Ministre de la Marine, par M. L. de 

 Montaignac, Capitaine de frigate, Commandant la Station de la Mer du Nord. 



