50 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



out all that's bad, and you think every year you get 

 better crops. So it is with us. We disturb the ground 

 and the soil comes up underneath, and the fish are able 

 to get at it." The trawl with a 36-ft. beam was 

 found most serviceable by Yarmouth men, who worked 

 in strong currents which would break longer beams. 

 Larger beams were used by smacksmen on the north- 

 east coast, and these were called by Yarmouth men 

 " sea-rakers." 



In those early days, the beginning of the halcyon 

 period of trawl-fishing, some amazing catches were 

 made, for there were still comparatively few beams at 

 work over a vast area, and the fish had not developed 

 the cunning of the modern haddock, of which it has been 

 said that it is crafty enough to see a trawl coming and 

 to give it a wide berth. In three weeks one skipper 

 caught 326 packages of fish, of ij cwt. each, and he was 

 at Smith's Knoll with thirty trawlers which, for several 

 weeks, were within hail of each other, working backward 

 and forward with the tide ; and there was little or no 

 difference between the catches of the foremost and the 

 sternmost vessels. 



It will be seen that for the three weeks' catches 

 referred to the average catch per day was more than a 

 ton, and as a trawler cost less than a thousand pounds 

 ;8oo or ^900 and the wages of the mate were only 

 1 8s. and common hands i6s., there were ample chances 

 of owners enriching themselves and skippers becoming 

 owners. Many a steady man, who as a small boy had 

 been sent to sea by Boards of Guardians, became a rich 

 smackowner. 



It was found in the early Sixties that it did not pay 



