THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 499 



be beyond the highest tide. But I am not aware of 

 another instance of their having been hauled completely 

 across the first range of downs, and the operation must 

 certainly have been a very difficult one. Government, 

 however, set much store by the order being strictly 

 executed. It was feared that, if the smacks were left 

 ashore so as to be visible from the sea, they might be 

 destroyed by British artillery, or burnt in some successful 

 landing razzia ; and such an event would not only have 

 been a severe infliction upon shipowners, but also have 

 brought down upon the Batavian Government the dis- 

 pleasure of their powerful ally in the south, who wanted 

 the boats to be preserved for his ulterior military views 

 The coast fishermen of Scheveningen, Katwijk and Noord- 

 wijk opposed the measure, and baulked its execution for 

 some time, but it was ultimately carried out all over the 

 coast, and as regards Scheveningen was enforced by the 

 intervention of the municipal authorities of the Hague. 

 As an instance of the extreme reluctancy of shipowners to 

 subject their bum-boats to the operation prescribed, some 

 fishermen of Noordwijk tried to evade the order on the plea 

 that their boats were no longer subject to the Batavian law, 

 having been sold to Prussian subjects.* 



And now there was virtually an end of Dutch sea-fishery 

 for some years. Herring shipowners in the course of the 

 year 1803 tried, but in vain, to obtain a premium as an 

 indemnification for having equipped their vessels to no 

 purpose/)* and some of them ultimately sought to cover part 

 of their outlays by fishing for cod on the Dogger bank, and 

 occasionally trying a cast for herring, towards which end 



* Vervolg op Wagenaar^ p. 249, sqq. Notulen van het Staats- 

 bewind, June-Dec. 1803, Jan. 1804, passim, 

 f Notulen Staatsbewind 1803, passim. 



2 K 2 



