THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 455 



used at two common seamen's thumbs, and some limits were 

 measured out in the next year, within which fishermen 

 from Holland should not be allowed to approach the 

 Gelderland and Overyssel shores. But they of Holland 

 continued to overstep both boundaries of lawful fishing, and 

 their fishing vessels of a peculiar description call " water- 

 schepen"* in which they used to carry arms and ammuni- 

 tion, and commit acts of violence and piracy upon the fishers 

 of the other provinces, were the terror of the Zuider Zee. 

 Nor did they amend their conduct when a sentence, or 

 arrest, by the Grand Council of Malines, dated April 29th, 

 1559, definitively determined both the fishery limits of 

 each province, and the minimum width of the nets to be 

 used. 



The Union of Utrecht by no means put an end to the 

 protracted disputes and petty warfare between fishermen 

 from the several provinces which acceded to it. Reciprocal 

 complaints about fishing with unlawful nets, and within the 

 established limits, were frequently laid before the States of 

 those provinces. Gelderland and Overyssel having been 

 occupied by the enemy in 1672, it was seriously considered 

 in the States of Holland to exact from them, as a condition 

 for their re-admission into the Union, a promise never to 

 trouble Holland fishermen in the unrestricted fishery in 

 the Zuider Zee in future.f The disputes ran so high in the 

 next years, that Holland and Gelderland imprisoned several 

 of each other's fishermen for unlawful fishing, and a conven- 



* I have not been able to ascertain to what peculiarity these vessels, 

 of which no mention is made in after years, owe their rather singular 

 name of " water ships." None of the authors nor any of the laws 

 upon the subject explain their nature. I suppose them to have been 

 well-boats. 



f Secret Res. Holl. February 65, March 24, 1674. 



