INSURANCE OF FISHING GEAR. 135 



INSURANCE OF FISHING GEAR. 



Of all insurance problems, that of how best to insure 

 " fishing gear, nets, &c.," is the most difficult to solve. 

 The risks are so great and so perplexing that hitherto under- 

 writers have not dared to undertake them. Only those who 

 are actually engaged in the fishing business are aware of its 

 intricacies and the dangers surrounding it ; and the better 

 these are understood the more bewildering docs the 

 question of how best to insure against them appear to be. 

 Let me point out some of these difficulties. Speaking in a 

 general sense, fishing gear may be divided into two kinds, 

 trawling gear and drifting gear. Trawling gear consists of 

 beam, heads, net, ground-rope, bridles, and warp ; drifting 

 gear of nets, bowls, and warp-ropes. The value of the 

 former may be estimated at from 60 to 90 ; that of the 

 latter from 200 to 400. The size and weight, and con- 

 sequently the value, of a complete trawling gear, depend 

 principally upon the size and weight of the vessel on board 

 which it has to be worked ; but other considerations than 

 these must be borne in mind in estimating the value of a 

 working " fleet " of drifting gear. Drift-nets differ in " ply," 

 in the number of meshes to the yard, and in their depth 

 and length ; and warp-ropes differ in the materials of which 

 they are made, as well as in their size. Add to these facts 

 that the number of nets forming a u fleet " varies according 

 to the size of the fishing vessel employed, and other cir- 

 cumstances, and some faint conception of the initial 

 difficulty in solving the question asked will be obtained. 

 It would be a very troublesome matter, therefore, to 

 ascertain the value of a drifting " fleet," and this trouble 

 and expense would have to be incurred at least once in 

 every season, because warp-ropes, and especially nets, 



