THE FIRST DUTCH WAR 407 



blamed, on the ground that the busses might have been made 

 use of in establishing a native fishery, while the detention of 

 their crews would have helped to cripple the resources of the 

 Dutch in manning their fleets. 1 The same generous spirit was 

 shown towards the French boats that fished in the Channel, 

 which were excepted from the general seizure of French ship- 

 ping, unless they acted improperly. 2 In the course of the war, 

 however, it became the rule for both the Dutch and the Eng- 

 lish vessels to bring into port all the fishing-boats captured 

 from the enemy. 



After Blake dispersed the Dutch busses, the States of Holland 

 at first thought of calling home the rest of the herring fleet 

 (only about 600 or 700 had returned), and for that year to put 

 a stop to the fishing, which had just begun ; but it was finally 

 decided to continue it with twenty-four armed busses and six 

 men-of-war as a guard, a conclusion, no doubt, helped by the 

 gentle way in which the English admiral had dealt with the 

 busses that fell into his hands. When English herring-boats 

 were seized and taken to the Netherlands, Holland, which had 

 the greatest stake in the fishery, tried to induce the States- 

 General to release them, and to issue orders that British fisher- 

 men were not to be molested, in the hope that such forbearance 

 would be imitated in England. But the policy failed, and 

 orders were given to do the English fishermen all harm 

 possible. In the following year the States - General forbade 

 the whaling - ships sailing for Greenland, but they did not 

 prohibit the herring fishery, though the greater number of 

 the busses were kept at home by the prudence of their owners. 

 Many were captured by English cruisers. More than fifty 

 were taken by the English fleet on the Dutch coast in May 

 1653, most of them being brought into Aberdeen and there 

 sold. Some of those seized in the course of the war were 

 handed over by the Council of State to the London Corpora- 

 tion for the Poor, to be used in fishing on the English coast. 



narrative (supra) says he was on board one of the ships (the Assurance) that 

 attacked the busses, and that they found them " northwards of the Dogger 

 Bank " ; but there is no doubt that the locality was far north of the Dogger, off 

 Buchan Ness, Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 11,684. 



1 Memoirs of Edward Ludlow, 420. 



2 Proc. Council of State, 20th July 1652. 



