THE BEAM-TRAWL. 273 



numerous designs and models of steam-trawlers in the 

 Exhibition point to the attention now being given to this 

 important subject. 



The fishing grounds systematically worked over by the 

 trawlers are scattered over a large area, and lie principally 

 on the southern half of the North Sea, a locality to which 

 we have frequently had occasion to refer. The oldest 

 known trawling grounds are, however, on the Devonshire 

 coast, where the Brixham men have regularly worked for 

 probably not much less than a hundred years. Brixham 

 claims to be the " mother of trawling," although a similar 

 claim has been put in by Barking, on the Thames. So far 

 as we can ascertain, small trawls may have been used 

 inshore for many years before these nets were tried in deep 

 water, but it seems probable that Brixham took the lead in 

 trawling at sea ; and there is no doubt that Brixham men 

 introduced trawling at Ramsgate, and in 1845, many of 

 them migrated to Hull, and thence systematically worked 

 the important North Sea fishery now carried on from that 

 port. In 1858 five trawlers left Hull for Grimsby, nearer 

 the mouth of the Humber. It was the year before the 

 opening of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire 

 Railway at Grimsby; and since that date the Grimsby 

 trawl-fishery has gone on increasing until it has become 

 the most important in the United Kingdom, and the 

 railway from the port daily conveys very large supplies of 

 fish to the centre of the manufacturing districts. Yarmouth 

 is another great trawling port on the North Sea, and 

 received her first trawlers from Barking through the enter- 

 prise of the late Mr. Hewett, who, beginning his career as a 

 boy on board one of these fishing smacks, lived to see a 

 large fleet of vessels the property of himself and some 



members of his family. If deep-sea trawling were by any 

 VOL. i. H. T 



