STEAM, THE CONQUEROR 151 



voyage. These splendid vessels, owing to their being in 

 and out of port so often, and having, throughout the winter 

 months especially, to withstand the full force of the North 

 Sea gales, are made exceptionally strong, and although 

 they are built to Lloyd's highest class, yet their scantlings 

 are in most cases very much in excess of Lloyd's require- 

 ments, and as a good sea-boat there is nothing to beat, 

 and few craft to equal, a North Sea steam-trawler. I 

 have seen them working far from their original homes, 

 trying their luck in the Atlantic, the Bay of Biscay, and 

 off the Morocco Coast, and lying snugly in such places 

 as Oporto ; steam-trawlers have gone out to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and I know a man who took one of the 

 early paddle-craft to the other side of the world, a 

 I2,ooo-miles' trip. To-day energetic measures are 

 being taken to organise fleets of steam-trawlers for 

 Australian and Japanese waters. Perhaps we shall see 

 cargoes of frozen fish brought home from the Antipodes. 

 At the end of December 1909 the total number of 

 first-class steam-trawlers registered in England and 

 Wales and the Isle of Man was 1336, no fewer than 

 1 1 22 of these being registered at English North Sea 

 ports, including 514 at Grimsby, 446 at Hull, 76 at 

 North Shields, and 31 at Boston. No steam-trawlers 

 were registered either at Yarmouth or Lowestoft, where, 

 however, there were 139 and 243 steam - drifters 

 respectively. Grimsby alone, also Hull, had more 

 steam-trawlers in 1909 than all the foreign countries 

 bordering on the North Sea put together, this total 

 being 433, of which Germany accounted for 290, the 

 Netherlands 78, Belgium 25, Norway 15, France 

 10, and Denmark 15. The Scottish steam-trawlers 



