THE RAW MATERIAL 



A modern yard would have accommodation for 

 la\'ing down a score or more steam trawlers or 

 drifters, and before the war there were to be seen at 

 important centres like Aberdeen a dozen fine 

 trawlers on the stocks at one time, while at an 

 inland town such as Selby a cluster of powerful 

 boats was at any time visible, the peculiarity of this 

 shipbuilding yard being that the trawlers were 

 launched into the narrow river broadside on, making 

 a fine crested wave as the vessel entered the water, 

 and giving her the first of many shakings that she 

 would have to endure in her stormy lifetime. Many 

 splendid specimens of this form of fishing vessel 

 were constructed at the Yorkshire town. 



The steam drifter was an inevitable development 

 of the sailing drifter, a type of craft with which the 

 herring fishery had been prosecuted for a long 

 period, and the direct successor of the boats which 

 centuries before had carried on the herring fishery 

 from the ancient port of Yarmouth. 



The sailing herring drifter was a very famous 

 vessel with two masts. Of these the foremast was 

 so made as to lower backward into a " tabernacle," 

 so that the fishing operations might be easier and 

 generally helped. The mizenmast was fixed in the 

 ordinary way. These drifters were fully-decked 

 craft, with excellent use made of all the space both 

 on deck and below. The average length was rather 



re than 50ft., with a beam of 17ft., and a depth 

 <>f 7ft. — smaller ships than the trawling smack, but 

 they were not expected to meet the same prolonged 



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