FISHING PORTS 211 



soles, or about 15 tons of fish, are in the fish market, 

 while the 60 tons of coal are in the bunkers. In another 

 hour the vessel, having taken in 10, 15, or 20 tons 

 of ice, according to the season, is ready to sail again, 

 and the crew of ten men who have just performed 

 these wonders are ready to begin work again the same 

 evening. In two minutes the mechanical tractor of the 

 travelling gangway transports a hamper of fish from 

 the ice-box of the vessel to the fish market, whence its 

 contents are despatched, according to its destination, to 

 the auction, the refrigerating chambers, or the canning 

 factory, or direct to the packing sheds." 



Boulogne, Fecamp, and Arcachon are full of activity. 

 At Grimsby, however, the activity is feverish. Although 

 I was warned, I was absolutely stupefied by the 

 extraordinary movement of this port. Watching the 

 unloading every morning of the fish brought by a 

 hundred steam trawlers, one seems to be in the land 

 of demons. It is a swarming army of fishermen, porters, 

 criers, dockers, and packers, and the uproar is truly 

 infernal. 



Grimsby is the first fishing port x of the world. It 

 owns nearly six hundred steam trawlers and only thirty 

 sailing trawlers. The fishing harbour or "Fish Dock" 

 is distinct from the trading harbour. It comprises two 

 entrance channels, with tide-gates, a first basin of 12 



1 The principal European fishing ports are Grimsby, Hull, 

 Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Scarborough, Whitby, North Shields, Rams- 

 gate, Boston, Sunder land, and Hartlepool, in England ; Aberdeen, 

 Peterhead, Eraser burg, Leith, Buckie, Wick, Macduff, and Mont- 

 rose, in Scotland ; Lerwick, in the Shetlands ; Geestmiinde, Norden- 

 ham, Cuxhaven, and Altona, in Germany ; Esbjerg, in Denmark ; 

 Stavanger, Bergen, Aalesund, Kristiansund, and Tromso, in Norway ; 

 Ijmuiden, in Holland; Ostend, in Belgium; Setubal in Portugal; 

 and Vigo, in Spain. 



