248 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



usually sent out a fleet of about 300 sail, with 5000 persons, to 

 the fishings mentioned, but the fishermen were now so terrified 

 by the Dunkirkers that they refused to go. The Mayor of 

 Newcastle also informed the Council that they had been 

 despoiled to the extent of 7000 ; he said there were 300 sail 

 in port which dared not venture out ; and the Council were 

 asked to take means to secure safe passage on the sea. At 

 this time there were said to be forty Dunkirk privateers 

 scouring the North Sea, many of them with English sailors on 

 board. 1 We have already seen how successfully these free- 

 booters preyed upon the busses of the Fishery Society. 



Here then was a clear case for a navy, when an effective 

 navy did not exist. The Council and the Admiralty took 

 such isolated measures as they could; but the Dunkirkers 

 were almost always too nimble to be caught. " They take 

 ships," wrote the commander of a man-of-war convoying the 

 Iceland fishing fleet, "and we in sight and cannot come up 

 to help it." The duty and expense of providing convoys 

 to protect the fishermen were thrown on the fishing ports 

 and the counties. In 1627 the Council ordered four New- 

 castle ships to be taken up for eight months, to convoy the 

 Iceland fleet, at a cost of 1768, to be paid out of the "loans" 

 in Suffolk. The estimate in the following year for a guard 

 of four merchant ships, of 400 tons each, with 120 men 

 for one month in harbour and 240 men for six months 

 at sea, was 4399 ; and the Council in authorising the Admir- 

 alty to " press, victual, arm, and man " the ships, instructed 

 that if Yarmouth and the other towns wanted convoy in 

 future they should first consult together as to some mode 

 of levying monies for it, either upon the coast towns or 

 upon the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. This was done, 

 in part at least, by levying a contribution of twenty shillings 

 from each fisherman ; and fishermen also protected them- 

 selves by insuring their vessels in London against the risks 

 of capture by the Dunkirk privateers. The owners and 

 masters of the merchant ships thus pressed to act as guards 

 to the fishing fleets were usually most unwilling to serve, 

 and sometimes "utterly refused," and the Admiralty had 



1 State Papers, Dom., Ivi. 66; Ixi. 81; Ixx. 8, 9; liv. 56; xc. 70, 119; clxii. 

 82, 45. 



