82 THE HERRING IN HISTORY 



of herring fisheries between the Seine and the 

 Somme in the year 1383. 



About the year 1392 Margaret of Sweden, 

 whose country had suffered severely at the 

 hands of pirates known as the Victual Brothers, 

 who professed to supply provisions to that part 

 of the Swedish coast used by the Hansa 

 League for the herring fishery, begged 

 Richard II. to lend her three ships from Lynn 

 in Norfolk for the protection of her kingdom. 

 For three years fishing in the Scania district 

 was non-existent, and contemporary documents 

 refer to the high- cost of Lenten food owing to 

 the scarcity of herrings ; but by 1400 the 

 Hanseatic fleet had swept the seas of these 

 pirates, among whom, by the way, was a 

 Brother bearing the name of Moltke. Visitors 

 to Hamburg before the war will remember 

 having been shown many models of a ship 

 called the Coloured Cow (Bunte Kuh) ; this was 

 the flag-ship of the Hanseatic fleet, whose com- 

 mander, Simon of Utrecht, Alderman of Ham- 

 burg, was foremost in clearing the seas of the 

 Victual Brothers and so enabling the Hanseatic 

 fishermen again to follow their calling. 



Although in 1391 no Hanseatic merchant 

 was allowed to sail from a western to an eastern, 

 or from an eastern to a western harbour be- 

 tween Martinmas and Candlemas, herring and 

 beer, however, the two most important exports 

 from the Hanseatic towns, were not subject to 

 these restrictions. The herring as a fasting \ 



