434 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



been incurred." * The true sense of these words can only 

 be found out by detailed investigation ; but even though 

 not quite understood they make it evident that the terms 

 between shipowners and skippers in the cod-fishery were 

 then commonly regulated by some intricate contract, full 

 of antiquated words of doubtful meaning, such as are still 

 in use in the Dutch sea-fisheries, and are frequently the 

 cause of protracted, and by the nature of the men concerned, 

 violent disputes between employers and employed. 



The Dunkirkers in the next years did not spare the cod 

 fishery any more than the other branches. Cod fishers 

 accordingly used to sail in squadron to the Dogger bank, 

 under cover of two or more men-of-war supplied by 

 Government, which convoy having been destroyed by 

 seven Dunkirk privateers in April 1628, the whole fleet of 

 the " small-fishery," reported to have, at the moment, been 

 1 80 vessels strong, retreated into port before the end of 

 the season.f Three years afterwards, six men-of-war were 

 allowed to " de groote Abberdaan visscherije op de Maase" 

 at the request of their Committee of Shipowners and 

 Steersmen.^ These words of " great salt cod-fishery " were 

 commonly used to designate the Iceland business, which 

 accordingly must have had some organization, and a re- 

 presentative board, early in the seventeenth century. The 

 mutual insurance contract just now mentioned may have 

 been the beginning of a farther organization of the 

 trade. An association called " de Schelvis visscherije" 

 of Maassluis is mentioned as having in 1636 applied for 



* " De Penningen van het tweede woord gelaten zouden worden 

 onder de stuurlieden tot het einde der teelt, en dan te restitueren aan 

 de Vennots, indien geen schade en viele." Cf. Res. Holl. 1622, p. 751 ; 

 1623 p. 94, 206, 214. 



t Res. Holl. 1628, p. 444. 



\ Ibid. 1631, p. 171. 



