A HISTORY OF DORSET 



drink, its consumption leads to rough language 

 and rougher behaviour. Sometimes when two 

 crews crossed their seines in pursuit of the same 

 school of fish they ' larrupped ' one another with 

 their tongues while their friends on the beach 

 assisted in the quarrel with pebbles ; '^ but such 

 behaviour and drinking is exceptional, and not 

 typical of the industry. 



When the fish are seen the look-out signals 

 or shouts, and at once the men run down pell- 

 mell to the beach, their heavy boots thundering 

 and their coats flapping as they run. The nets 

 are snatched up from the beach where they were 

 drying ; the boats are hastily launched, and the 

 school is pursued — often fruitlessly, often with 

 moderate success, and occasionally with results 

 similar to those described by Defoe. 



A man may wait night after night for a week 

 or more and earn nothing, and then if he 

 happens to stay at home one night it may 

 chance that his partners earn ;^I or £1 each. 

 The money earned is divided into shares, of 

 which the boat has two, the seine two, and each 

 of the crew one. The loafers who help to pull 

 in the net are usually paid with a few of the 

 inferior fish. 



All the mackerel-fishing by day and by night 

 is carried on in the same way. The fish are 

 inclosed in a seine the ends of which are attached 

 to long ropes, and these are gradually drawn in 

 until the seine is brought to the shore. The 

 end of the rope left on shore is called the ' long 

 arm,' and the end taken in the boat the 'ship 

 arm,' and sometimes the ' short arm.' The best 

 idea of the picture made by the fishermen and 

 their nets can be obtained by imagining Raphael's 

 cartoon of * The Miraculous Draught of Fishes ' 

 with typical English fishermen clothed in sea- 

 boots and jerseys instead of Italians in conven- 

 tional draperies. 



At Abbotsbury a farmer, whose son now 

 farms in his stead, had an especially long seine 

 and a larger boat (pulling six oars instead of the 

 usual four) ; with these he was able to make 

 larger sweeps and to inclose larger hauls. As 

 he had horses at his disposal he was in the habit 

 of hitching one to the ' long arm,' so that the 

 horse with one man could pull the net in, saving 

 both labour and expense. His name and the 

 name of his boat still live on the beach and 

 among old fishermen, but his practice has not 

 been followed. 



In Defoe's time a ' guard or watch was placed 

 on the shore in several places,' and he found 

 these to be officers appointed by the justices and 

 magistrates of the towns about ' to prevent the 

 country farmers buying the mackerel to dung 

 their land with, which was thought to be dan- 

 gerous as to infection.'' Similar abundance and 



" From local information. 

 " Engl. Displayed (1769), 75. 



similar precautions are recorded in other histories 

 and descriptions of Dorset. 



At the present time the fish is sent to London 

 from Bridport by the Great Western Railway. 

 1906 was an especially good year, and a great 

 deal of money was divided among the crews 

 along the coast. 



Though the supply of mackerel is precarious, 

 the fishermen derive a fairly steady income by 

 catching herring, cod, whiting, rock salmon, 

 grey mullet, red mullet, and occasional lobsters. 

 These are usually hawked through the inland 

 villages by fishwomen, each of whom has her 

 own particular beat. 



Many of the men do odd jobs on shore, and 

 nearly all possess or rent a potato ground, so 

 that they are able in some measure to supple- 

 ment their earnings from the fishery, while their 

 wives, daughters, and younger sons make nets 

 for the manufacturers at Bridport. 



The pilchard fishery at Lyme Regis was new 

 in 1724.'^ It seems to have been fairly success- 

 ful. In 1769 merchants of Lyme were reported 

 to have ' engaged with good success in the pilchard 

 fishery;''* they are represented as taking up the 

 industry because the fishing in Newfoundland 

 had become less profitable. Yet, as Defoe 

 pointed out, the interest in the pilchard fishing 

 has never been so considerable as it is farther 

 west, * the pilchards seldom coming up so high 

 eastward as Portland and not very often so high 

 as Lyme.' This sound geographical reason still 

 holds good, though the movements of the pil- 

 chards vary from year to year, and a certain 

 number of Dorset men are engaged in this 

 fishery. 



The commercial relations between Dorset and 

 Newfoundland, growing out of the early attrac- 

 tion of West-countrymen to the North Ameri- 

 can fishery, have been long and close, forming a 

 chapter in the economic history of the county 

 which no student of the subject can afford to 

 ignore. According to the evidence of mer- 

 chants, many of whom were Poole men, before 

 a Parliamentary Committee in 1793, the New- 

 foundland fishery was regarded as part of the 

 fishing industry of Dorset ; '^ whilst the inti- 

 macy of the commercial relations alluded to 

 above is clearly shown by an order of the Star 

 Chamber in 1633, whereby the mayor of Wey- 

 mouth, in conjunction with his brethren of 

 Southampton and other neighbouring seaports, 

 was to ' take cognisance ' of all offences and 



" Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1724), i, 330. 



" Ibid. 242. 



" According to a letter quoted in the above evi- 

 dence, written by Mr. Antonie Parkhurst, and pub- 

 lished in Halduyt's Voyages, the Newfoundl.ind fishery 

 was firmly established in 1574, a fleet of thirty ships 

 sailing in that year to the colony, the number increas- 

 ing rapidly, until fifty were dispatched in 1578 ; Pari. 

 Rep. N etcfoundland Trade, 1793, p. 2. 



356 



