1 70 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



voyage began in August, and high prices were realised 

 throughout the season. The most successful Yarmouth 

 boat earned ^3400, and her skipper received ^200, 

 the mate ^140, six of her crew ^124, and the cook, who 

 was a boy, ^31. For that season the Scotch fisher- 

 girls, as they mostly were, were paid ; 13,000 in wages, 

 the tellers who counted the fish received ^2000, and 

 the cartage amounted to ^3600. 



In the days when fishing was done entirely by 

 sailing vessels there were occasionally strokes of good 

 fortune which corresponded with the big hauls and 

 profits of to-day. The mackerel fishery of 1821, for 

 example, was astonishingly successful. On 3Oth June 

 sixteen Lowestoft boats had catches of a total value of 

 ^5252 an average of ^328 each. Four Hastings 

 boats, on a Sunday in March 1833, brought to harbour 

 10,800 mackerel, and the next day two boats took to 

 market 7000 fish. Early in February 1834 a Hastings 

 crew, for one night's catch, cleared 100. The boats 

 engaged in the mackerel fishery at that time were 

 usually attended by fast-sailing vessels, and these were 

 dispatched with the fish as soon as it was taken. These 

 cutters sailed direct either for London or the nearest 

 market from which land carriage could be got. The fish 

 was sent from places like Hastings by vans, which 

 travelled to London in the night. 



The highest price ever known at Billingsgate market 

 up to nearly a century ago was realised in May 1807, 

 when the first Brighton boatload of mackerel fetched 

 forty guineas a hundred at the rate of 75. each, reckon- 

 ing six score to a hundred. The next boatload, how- 

 ever, was sold at only thirteen guineas a hundred, 



