A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



size of this measure at different times makes it 

 somewhat difficult to compare the figures of one 

 period with those of another. About 1600 the 

 contents of the hogshead were apparently mea- 

 sured by the number of fish, for Richard Carew l 

 says that ' on packing they keepe a juste tale of 

 the number that every hogshead contayneth, 

 which otherwise may turn to the marchants pre- 

 judice : for I have heard that when they are 

 brought to the place for sale, the buyer openeth 

 one hogshead at adventures ; and if hee finde the 

 same not to answere the number figured on the 

 outside he abateth a like proportion in every 

 other, as there wanted in that.' 



But the traditional size of a hogshead of pil- 

 chards is 4^ cwt. 2 when packed, and as the oldest 

 of the fishermen learnt this from their fathers and 

 grandfathers, it may be fairly assumed that the 

 hogshead of Dr. Borlase's time was of this 

 capacity. It contains about 3,000 fish, and this 

 gives an annual average export in the middle of 

 the eighteenth century of more than eighty-nine 

 millions of fish. 



One hundred years later the average an- 

 nual export was 21,732 hogsheads, 3 or about 

 sixty-five millions of fish. In 1847 the total 

 was 40,883 hogsheads (i22 millions of fish), 

 which is probably the largest on record for a 

 single year. 



In consequence of a decreasing demand for the 

 fish by Italian markets, and an increase in the 

 pilchard fishery off the north-west coast of Spain, 

 the export from Cornwall has diminished to a 

 great extent in the last thirty years. The fish 

 are still plentiful enough, and, as Mr. T. Cornish 

 said in 1883,* 'we could easily find thirty or 

 forty millions of fish for the supply of a fresh 

 fish market without feeling the loss of them.' 



The pilchard is a small fish of the ' herring ' 

 family, generally about ten inches long, and less 

 than half a pound in weight. Although it is 

 occasionally caught ofFExmouth and Seaton in 

 South Devon, it practically confines itself to the 

 coast west of the Start Point in Devonshire and 

 Trevose Head in Cornwall. In these waters it 

 usually appears in July, coming from the west in 

 large schools. A small quantity of scattered fish 

 are sometimes taken in the drift nets in June. 



During July the bulk of the fishery is in 

 Mount's Bay ; ' in August and September, in 

 Mount's Bay and to the east of the Lizard ; and 

 in September and October, chiefly offSt. Ivesand 

 the north coast. 



It is caught both in drift nets and in seines, 

 and the methods in use to-day are the same as 

 those which were in use 300 years ago. In 1602 

 R. Carew wrote that ' the Drouers hang certain 



1 R. Carew, Surv. of Cornw. 33. 

 ' Of recent years the fish have been packed in 

 'half-hogsheads/ each containing 236 Ib. 



3 Trans. Penzance Nat. Hist. Soc. i, 444. 



4 ' The Mackerel and Pilchard Fisheries.' Inter- 

 national Fisheries Exhibition Conference, 1883. 



square nets athwart the tide thorou which the 

 schoell of pilchard passing leave many behind 

 entangled in the meshes ' ; a short but accurate 

 description equally applicable to the drift fishery 

 now. 



It would seem from his remark that ' the 

 Sayners complayne with open mouth, that these 

 drovers worke much prejudice to the common 

 wealth of fishermen and reape thereby small gaine 

 to themselves ; for (say they) the taking of some 

 few breaketh and scattereth the whole Schools 

 and frayeth them from approaching the shore 

 . . . ,' as though the drift fishery was at that 

 time a comparatively new thing, but he does not 

 say so definitely. As the pilchard fishery is 

 everywhere conducted close to the shore, and in 

 the bays on the coast, the boats engaged in the 

 drift-net work are much smaller than the 

 mackerel drivers, being usually about thirty feet 

 long ; even smaller boats are sometimes used, and 

 the men go out driving in the fine summer even- 

 ings in open hookers or gigs of as little as twenty- 

 two or twenty-five feet. 



St. Ives has the largest number of these pil- 

 chard drivers, the total being about 200. A large 

 number of these come to Newlyn in July, as at 

 that time the fish are more plentiful on the south 

 coast, returning to St. Ives in August, as the 

 quantity of fish increases on that side of the 

 land. 



The Mount's Bay ports have about 170 boats 

 (Porthleven 90, Mousehole 50, Newlyn 30), and 

 there is a goodly fleet of about 60 at Port Isaac, 

 which are largely engaged in pilchard driving in 

 the autumn. In the ports east of the Lizard 

 there are altogether about ioo 6 (Polperro 40, 

 Mevagissey 30, Looe 20), and many of these 

 boats are also used for the local mackerel drift 

 fishery, which is not the case west of the Lizard, 

 where the smaller boats are not suitable. 



The pilchard seine fishery is even more of an 

 inshore fishery than the drift. The seines are of 

 the same kind as are used everywhere, but have 

 a smaller mesh than those used for mackerel, and 

 the method of saving the fish is slightly different. 

 In catching mackerel the seine, when shot round 

 the school, is towed into shallow water, and the 

 foot of the net hauled up into the seine boat so 

 as to enclose the fish in the net itself ; but the 

 enormous size of a school of pilchards, 6 com- 

 pared with one of mackerel, makes this method 

 impracticable in dealing with the local fish. 

 When the fish are safely surrounded by the seine, 



6 Mr. Pezzack's Report. 



' A school of mackerel averages from 2,000 to 5,000 

 fish. A school of pilchards on the south coast (i.e. in 

 the early part of the season) averages less than 500 

 hogsheads, or 1,500,000 fish ; on the north (i.e. the 

 later part of the season) they are usually larger. The 

 greatest recorded number taken in one seine was at 

 St. Ives in 1868, when 5,600 hogsheads, or more than 

 16,500,000 fish, were saved. Almost as many were 

 taken there in one seine in 1851. 



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