PRIME AND OFFAL 97 



six from Faroe, and one from the White Sea, landed 

 such enormous catches that the trade of the market 

 overflowed on to almost every available adjoining 

 space." There were also three dozen trawlers from 

 home waters, and great though the accommodation is 

 at Grimsby the world's biggest fishing port yet it 

 was not equal to the extraordinary demand upon it. 

 Competent judges estimated that the weight of the 

 fish handled on that particular Wednesday the last 

 in February 1911 was nearly 1000 tons; while, for 

 that and the two preceding days, it was calculated 

 that the total weight was more than 2500 tons a 

 gigantic quantity. By way of contrast it may be stated 

 that the record for Aberdeen was the aggregate of about 

 735 tons, landed during one day in April 1911. 



Billingsgate cannot, of course, offer figures which 

 compare with those for Grimsby. Most of the fish 

 which is sold at Billingsgate is conveyed to that market 

 by rail, the carriers from the North Sea fleets being 

 comparatively few in number, and taking, as a rule, only 

 a day's total catches. On the other hand, the vessels 

 putting into Aberdeen, Hull, Grimsby, and the lesser 

 ports are almost exclusively single-boaters, and many of 

 these, coming from Iceland, the White Sea, and other 

 distant fishing-grounds, have been absent from port 

 three weeks or more, running out and home and 

 trawling, so that their catches represent numerous 

 shoots of the gear, unless there has been exceptional 

 luck and time after time the trawl may be hauled quite 

 filled with fish. A very few such hauls and the trawler 

 is homeward-bound. 



Actual figures, taken at random, will show the pro- 

 7 



