40 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



trawl was hauled, it was found to be full of fish not 

 a mixture of prime and offal, but of prime alone, and 

 the primest at that, for the entire catch consisted of sole. 



Hurrying to Hull, the skipper sold his precious catch, 

 and hastened back to the money-giving spot for more. 

 Again the trawl was packed with soles, and the wondrous 

 hauls were repeated, not only by the discovery of what 

 became known as the Silver Pit, because of its wealth of 

 fish, but also by other trawlers who had heard of the 

 presence of abundant prime. 



The fame of the Silver Pit spread far and wide, and 

 smacksmen swooped on Hull and settled there. The 

 few trawlers rapidly increased in number, and money was 

 made almost as swiftly as it was being taken from the 

 goldfields. The wiser and more cautious men built the 

 foundations of substantial fortunes ; but the more im- 

 provident spirits acted on the principle of easy come, 

 easy go. The man who discovered the Silver Pit and 

 founded the east coast fishing trade died in Hull work- 

 house fifty years after he had led the way to fortune ! 



The Dogger is the father of the North Sea banks. 

 It is with that famous region that the most courageous and 

 romantic deep-sea operations are associated ; but there 

 are now many other localities which are being worked 

 by steamboats just as hard as ever the Dogger was in 

 the earlier days of fleeting. Great Britain is scarcely 

 more clearly mapped out into countries than the North 

 Sea is charted into districts, most of them known only 

 to fishermen or those who are connected with the 

 fishing industry. There is the Viking Bank, 450 miles 

 from the H umber, and almost midway between the 

 Shetlands and Norway; the Great Fisher Bank, north- 



