216 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



calculated that the ten busses, would catch another thousand 

 lasts, which he thought might be mostly exported to Prussia 

 and along the German coast. The first step in carrying out 

 the scheme was to form a company to raise a capital of 

 about 11,000 or 12,000, and a committee was appointed 

 for the purpose. 1 



Coke's scheme, which, like all the others, was based upon a 

 close imitation of the Dutch system, met with great favour 

 from the king and the court. Further consideration, moreover, 

 led the promoters to believe that the success of the enterprise 

 would be increased if operations were also undertaken at the 

 Lewes instead of being confined to the east coast, and various 

 schemes were propounded with this end in view. The sug- 

 gestion appears to have emanated from Captain John Mason, 

 and it was made at a time when the island was a bone of con- 

 tention between the royal burghs of Scotland and the Earl of 

 Seaforth, who had obtained from the king a charter to " erect " 

 Stornoway into a royal burgh. 2 The burghs strenuously 

 resisted the confirmation of this charter and refused to give 

 effect to it, all the more since Seaforth had settled at Storno- 

 way a number of Dutch people who were engaged in the 

 fisheries there. From an interesting report by a Captain John 

 Dymes, who visited Lewis in 1630 at the request of certain 

 members of the Privy Council, and apparently in the interest of 

 the proposed fishery society, we learn that the Dutch had been 

 fishing there with great success. Their four busses, each with 

 twenty-five nets and a crew of sixteen men, caught 300 lasts 

 of herrings in three months, which were sold at Dantzic for 400 

 guilders or about 38 a last, which Dymes calculated would total 

 11,400, showing, after charges had been met, a gain for the 



1 State Papers, Dom., 1629, clii. 57. 



2 Mason, who was intimately associated with the fishery scheme, proposed that 

 the island should be purchased by a company of naturalised Scotsmen, and fishing 

 stations established ; and later he recommended the purchase of the island by the 

 king, leaving complete freedom of fishery to all Scotsmen. Sir William Mouson 

 urged that a " government " should be established in the island as well as in 

 Orkney and Shetland, and also a principal town ; and that the children of the 

 islanders should be taught English, and "correspondence" between the inhabit- 

 ants and the Highlanders hindered, "considering the danger of their too great 

 friendship." State Papers, Dom., 1629, clii. 66, 67, 68. The subject of the Earl 

 of Seaforth 's lease and the fishings is dealt with by Mackenzie, History of the Outer- 

 Hebrides, 290 et seq. 



