BOUNTIES OF 1787 159 



appears that these amounted to £17,904 10^. 6d,^ 

 a great contrast to the £27 earned by one 

 fishing boat under the Act of 1786. The 

 money was received by 251 herring boats 

 belonging to Yarmouth, forty-two belonging 

 to Deal, Dover, Rye and Southwold. None of 

 the Scottish boats received the bounty, as 

 they were built in such a way that it was 

 impossible for them to conform with the 

 stipulation that they should stow the six 

 barrels of cured herrings per ton burthen which 

 entitled them to the bounty. Further, the 

 Scottish boats went on much longer voyages 

 than the English, so that much of their hold 

 space had to be filled with provisions ; they 

 also carried more boats than was usual with 

 the English vessels, and their owners not 

 unnaturally complained that the bounty, as far 

 as they were concerned, was only waste paper. 

 In 1787 an association of Yarmouth traders 

 fitted out herring vessels to work under the 

 Act of 1786. Their boats proceeded to Shet- 

 land, going so far north that they were ham- 

 pered with floating ice. They abandoned the 

 usual method of shooting their nets in the lochs 

 and bays, and tried deep water instead, the 

 fish so caught being of excellent quality. They 

 found a ready market and good prices at Ham- 

 burg, where they arrived before the early 

 Dutch herrings, and even at Rotterdam. The 

 working expenses of the undertaking, however, 



