136 INSURANCE OF FISHING-GEAR. 



deteriorate very rapidly in value. Having estimated the 

 value of the gear, the next step would be to calculate the 

 dangers to which it is exposed when actually at work in 

 the sea ; and such a calculation would have to be made by 

 some kind of " rule of thumb," because no statistics or facts 

 of a reliable nature to assist in the settlement of the 

 question are obtainable. Here, then, one would be meta- 

 phorically, if not literally, at sea. The gear is put over- 

 board in fine weather and broad daylight ; after being 

 immersed for some hours it may have to be hauled again 

 on board in bad weather and darkness. Oftentimes a 

 trawl-net becomes entangled with some impediment at the 

 bottom of the sea, in which case the net is partially or 

 totally Destroyed ; and it is no infrequent circumstance for 

 the whole of the gear to be entirely lost. A drift-vessel is 

 sometimes compelled to " hang to its nets " for two or three 

 days ; and it is no uncommon occurrence for a vessel to be 

 parted from its " fleet of nets " by a steamer, or by bad 

 weather, or to be cut from it for the safety of the crew. 

 Contingent upon the speculative character of deep-sea 

 fishing, there are other dangers whose name is " legion," 

 and the more one contemplates them, the deeper and more 

 certain becomes the conviction that, in the matter of 

 fishing gear, a boat-owner must be his own underwriter. 



I can think of but two plans by which fishing gear could 

 be partially insured, and I use the words I have italicised 

 in their widest signification. To insure fishing gear fully, 

 or indeed to insure it at all under every circumstance, is 

 a Utopian dream. The one plan is to insure a certain pro- 

 portion of its agreed value in a manner similar to that in 

 which a certain proportion of the value of a vessel is insured 

 against total loss ; in such a case the sum insured would be 

 paid only in the event of the nets and gear being entirely 



