148 BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 



and the purity of the water there compared with what 

 was found at Hull. In fact, cod would live in store - 

 chests at Grimsby, when they could not do so at Hull. 

 At last some Hull trawl-smack owners thought of 

 making the other port their permanent head quarters, 

 as there was every prospect of the Manchester, Shef- 

 field, and Lincolnshire Eailway Company soon com- 

 pleting their line to the place. In 1858 five trawlers 

 made Grimsby their regular station, and in the fol- 

 lowing year the railway was opened to the town. 

 Since that date the Grimsby fisheries have rapidly 

 increased, as the advantages of the port have become 

 recognized. In 1863 there were 70 trawlers belonging 

 to the place; in 1872, only nine years later, the 

 trawlers numbered 248, and there were 82 cod-smacks, 

 all belonging to, and fishing from, Grimsby. In 1875 

 the number of first-class boats was 392, averaging over 

 55 tons; these included a few small smacks used in 

 the whelk fishery, but all the rest were trawlers and 

 cod-boats. The average tonnage of these last two 

 kinds of fishing boats was above 55 tons, many of them 

 being 70 tons ; and some of the vessels built in 1876 

 for trawling are as much as 80 tons. 



The courtesy of Mr. Reed, the dock-master at 

 Grimsby, enables me to give the following return of 

 the quantity of fish landed at the docks in each of the 

 twenty years, 1856-75 ; and although this does not 

 represent the whole proceeds of the fisheries from 

 Grimsby, some quantity of fish being sent by carriers 

 direct to London, and, for some years past, herrings 

 being landed here from some of the Yarmouth drift- 



