THE ROYAL FISHERY 107 



of all promise of convoy, however, the fear inspired by the 

 Dutch was such that it was but rarely that owners ven- 

 tured to allow their vessels to leave port, and the North Sea 

 was almost deserted both by merchant ships and by fishing 

 vessels. Thus, in 1672, while the war was still raging, 

 the crew of a solitary fishing vessel belonging to Yarmouth 

 who had braved the dangers of the voyage to the North 

 Sea fishing grounds reported on returning that " sailing 

 all along the coast they saw not one sail since they came 

 out of their fishing grounds till they came here." 



A state of affairs which drove English commerce from 

 the seas for such a considerable period must have ruined 

 many English shipowners and done incalculable harm to all 

 connected with the fishing industry. When the war with 

 the Dutch ended, the Royal Fishery Company had ceased 

 to exist. The close of the first phase of the war had seen 

 the company on the verge of ruin, its governors petitioning 

 the king for a grant of the monopoly of coining farthings 

 as the only means of maintaining the already feeble existence 

 of the society. The end of the second phase of the war 

 brought no similar appeal from the company ; the war 

 had brought its business to a standstill and the enterprise 

 had been abandoned, its vessels being left to deteriorate into 

 useless hulks. This is brought out in a letter written in 

 1674, when the war had just ended, by a certain Mr. Roger 

 L'Estrange, who was already seeking to promote a new 

 fishing company, to a Mr. Williamson. Concerning the 

 ships belonging to the Royal Fishery Company, he writes, 

 " His Majesty has several vessels that lie rotting for want 

 of care and employment, many of which were built for the 

 fishing." 1 



Even when the Royal Fishery Company was thus sinking 

 to oblivion, however, there were not wanting pamphleteers 

 to represent the folly of allowing the fishing industry to 



^Cal, S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 361, No. 235. 



