CHAPTER XII 

 WAGES AND PROFITS 



NORTH SEA fishers are paid on a peculiar and com- 

 plicated system, one which has successfully resisted all 

 attempts at change. The great element of chance, the 

 luck of trawling, the gambling of fishing these for 

 generations have made it impossible to put the immense 

 industry on the established basis of a great business 

 undertaking ashore. A skipper seldom or rarely knows 

 what the result of a haul may be ; but the net may 

 bring up a small fortune, a voyage may result in a 

 wonderful profit, and consequently he likes to feel that 

 he will benefit in proportion to the success of his toil. 

 That also is the feeling of his crew. It is a feeling 

 which has prevailed for generations amongst deep-sea 

 fishers, and the opportunity of some remarkable good 

 fortune has enabled many skippers and other deep-sea 

 toilers to start building a substantial fortune. In- 

 numerable chances of assuring financial success have 

 been lost or wasted. I remember seeing, in the earlier 

 days of steam-trawling, a vessel which had been single- 

 boating so triumphantly that she brought to port a catch 

 which realised joo. The profits of the skipper and 

 crew, who were working on the share plan, were ac- 

 cordingly very considerable ; but they went mostly into 



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