WAGES AND PROFITS 169 



The share system prevails in the herring-fishing, on 

 the following basis, in the case of a steam-drifter with 

 her crew of ten : Say the gross earnings for a season 

 are ^"1000; from that sum the expenses of coal, food, 

 landing dues, fish salesmen's commission, and incidentals, 

 amounting in the total to ^250, are deducted. The 

 owner of the vessel then takes half, and the other half 

 is divided amongst the crew according to their rank, and 

 the owner out of this half takes three shares. 



The skipper takes . . iJi shares 



mate . . . ii 



engineer . . . i 



hawsemen . . i ,, 



whaleman . . 







netstower 



stoker . . . 



cast-off man . . . f 



> >> ~%-g 



cook or boy . . . | 



Such is the principle. The practice works out in an 

 astonishingly erratic manner, for even a skipper's share 

 will be sometimes so small as to be contemptible. Not 

 long ago the skipper of a Lowestoft steam-drifter told 

 me that for a whole year's fishing at the drifting, reckon- 

 ing the lost time ashore in winter, his total earnings 

 were only ^34. " It's a bare, hard living at the best," 

 he added. On the other hand, there is always the 

 chance of a big success. For example, in 1899 the 

 Yarmouth herring-fleet, in its voyage which ended in 

 Christmas week, made a record catch of herrings, the 

 aggregate being 26,000 lasts, with a value of ,300,000. 

 Lowestoft also had a record catch of 18,000 lasts. This 



