THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 363 



instead, besides six regular men-of-war.* Some English 

 herring-boats having been taken by the Dutch, Holland at 

 first tried to move the States-General to release them, and 

 issue further orders for respecting the British fishermen, in 

 the hope of meeting with similar forbearance on the 

 enemy's hands. But as the English on the contrary made 

 a thorough use of the rights of war, orders to do their 

 fishermen the utmost possible damage were issued, and 

 several more of their boats were accordingly taken in 1652 

 by Dutch armed fishing vessels.! But the grand tourna- 

 ment of naval skill and daring, of which the North Sea 

 was the theatre during the war of 1652-4, left no room 

 for much casting of nets. Though in the year 1653 the 

 Herring College applied for protection with even more than 

 usual persistency, the States, then obliged to strain their 

 utmost means towards the equipment of the squadrons 

 which fought under Tromp, Evertsen, de Witt, and 

 de Ruyter, could afford no men-of-war for convoy through- 

 out the season, and were obliged to grant " commissions " 

 to some fishing skippers, which documents, although 

 ostensibly delivered to promote the fishery's protection, 

 appear indeed to have been nothing short of lettres de 

 marque.\ Such covering could, of course, be of no avail 

 against the British fleets, and it is accordingly averred that 

 in 1653, the herring fleet, then still consisting of some two 

 thousand vessels, was kept at home, not indeed by Govern- 

 ment order such as was in the said year issued to the 

 whaling fleet, but by the ship-owners' prudence, who saw 

 the impossibility of fishing in anything like safety. 



* Res. Holland, 1652, pp. 343, 387. 



t Res. Holl. pp. 364, sqq. Ho II. Mercurius, 1652, p. 86. 



\ Res. Holl. 1653, pp. 462, 538. 



Aitzema, Zaken v. Staat en O or log, v. iii. p. 810. 



