80 THE FISHING INDUSTRY 



Modern British steam trawlers travel as far afield as 

 Iceland, Newfoundland and Morocco. 



Steam trawling developed rapidly, and resulted in a 

 correspondingly rapid decrease in the number of sailing 

 trawlers. Between 1893 and 1903, the number of first 

 class smacks in Great Britain decreased from over 

 2,000 with an average tonnage (net) of 57-4 to less than 

 900 with an average tonnage (net) of 40. From 1903 

 until the present day, the number had remained between 

 900 and 800 ; it would seem, therefore, that the relative 

 numbers and importance of smacks and steam trawlers 

 gradually attained to a condition of equilibrium. 

 Between 1900 and 1906 the increasing importance of 

 steam trawling received a temporary check. A steam 

 trawler in those days would cost about 10,000 to con- 

 struct and about 5,000 a year to operate ; their com- 

 mercial success, therefore, depended upon correspond- 

 ingly large and valuable catches of fish being obtained. 

 When first introduced on the fishing grounds round the 

 coast their superior efficiency and speed amply com- 

 pensated for their high cost. About 1900, however, 

 the catch obtained by these vessels on the home fishing 

 grounds began to diminish, and the fishermen became 

 alarmed lest the greatly increased efficiency of steam 

 trawling should prove to be its own undoing, and result 

 in the depopulation of the fishing grounds by over- 

 fishing. Between 1900 and 1906, the number of steam 

 trawlers fishing from British ports only increased by 

 200, whereas, during the preceding 10 years, the numbers 

 had increased from a few hundred to over 2,000. 



The anticipated exhaustion of the home grounds led 

 to the steam trawler prospecting further afield. These 

 longer voyages, as far as Iceland and the White Sea and 

 Morocco, were very successful. The result of this was that 

 larger steam trawlers were built, capable of undertaking 



