14 



FISHERIES 



^S'Si 



a Mr Orlibar, a fishing smack owner at Harwich, made tlio 

 first attempt to fish fur cod with lung lines on tho Duggur 

 Bank ; and although he was at first very unsuccessful, ho 

 persevered, and was so fortunate that in 1774 the number 

 of smacks bad increased to 62, of which 40 wont regularly 

 to the Dogger to fish with long lines. In 1788 there were 

 78 smacks, and in 1798 the number had increased to 96. 

 About this time a few attempts were made at Qraveauiid, 

 Greenwich, and \. .rkmg to construct smacks of a similar 

 description, and the Harwich fishery gradually declined. 

 Afterwards the three places on the Tliumes increased their 

 cor.nexiou .vith this fishory, and Barking especially became 

 an im[)Oftant station, nut only for cod-boat?, but also fur 

 trawlers. Many cud vessels were likewise owned at 

 Qravesend and Greenwich, and these twj towns for many 

 years had stores of live cod in chests floating in the river. 

 Great changes have, however, taken place in recent times ; 

 the Thames water became su impure that the cod could not 

 be kept alive in it for many days, and ultimately the storing 

 of the fish there was altogether given up. The Harwich 

 river was still used for that purpose, and is so now, although 

 there are but few cod-boats belonging to the place ; but 

 the opening of the railways on the east coast gradually 

 brought Grimsby into notice, and its position in relation to 

 the fidhing grounds was found so cuiivenient that it gradu- 

 ally became, and there is every reason to believe it will re- 

 main, tlie headquarters of the Nurth Sea cod fishery. 



The special feature in this fishery which distinguishes it 

 from all other line fishing on the coast of the United King- 

 dom is the sy.stBmatic use of welled vessels, in which the 

 cod are kept alive until they are brought into p,)rt. These 

 welled smacks are built for the purpose, the well not being 

 a tank fitted into any. suitable vessel, but a part of tho 

 original construction of the hull. Two strong water-tight 

 bulkheads are built entirely across the vessel from keelson 

 to deck, enclosing a large space just in the centre of the 

 Bmack. This is the "well"; and a constant supply and 

 circulation of the water from the sea is kept up within it 

 through large auger holes bored in the bottom of the vessel, 

 in that part of it between the bulkheads. The vessel 

 is in fact built in three compartments, and the water has 

 access to the central one through the holes made at the 

 bottom of it. The entrance to the w.dl is on deck through 

 a hatchway, the four sides of which are carried down for 

 about three feet to what is called the well-deck, above the 

 level of the water-line, extending all round the hatchway to 

 the bulkheads and sides of the vessel. The object of this 

 lower deck is to keep the level of the water within certain 

 limits when the vessel is rolling about or pressed down 

 under sail. The cost of these welled smacks is about £300 

 more thau that of the ordinary " dry-bottomed " vessels of 

 the same size. The working expenses of a cod smack are 

 also much heavier than in a trawler. Each of these line 

 boats carries from nine to eleven hands, of whom as many 

 as six or seven are apprentices of various ages ; and the 

 system of payment by shares, so general with the trawlers, 

 is here only adopted in the case of the captain, who gets 

 9 per cent, of the proceeds of the voyage, the mate receiv- 

 ing 24s. per week, the men 22s., and the apprentices from 

 £5 to £12 a year, according to their length of service. 

 Provisions are found by the owner, entirely or nearly so, 

 Both hand lines and long lines are used in this fishery, 

 depending on season and locality. A complete set of long 

 lines consists of about fifteen auzen, or 180 lines, 40 fathoms 

 in length, each supporting 26 hooks on smaller short lines 

 called "snooda," which are fastened to the main line a 

 fathom and a half apart. A "string" of lines of this 

 description is 7200 fathoms long, or nearly eigitt milea, 

 and has 4680 hooks. Whelks or " buckies " are always 

 oaed for bait where they can be procured in sufficient 



quantities, and in the regular long-line season each smack 

 takes about 40 wash' of whelks with her lor tho vo}iii,'c, 

 and about half that quantity as the suasun draws to a clo-e 

 in March. The whelks aro preserved alive in net bags, and 

 are kept in the vessel's well till wanted, when tho shells are 

 broken and the tough tleshy animals extracted. Baiting the 

 large number of hooks used gives plenty of em[iloyment to 

 the large crew ol the smack. The lines are shot at sunrise 

 or earlier if the weather is fine and there is light enough to 

 see what is being ilone. Tho smack is put umler easy rhII, 

 and kept as much as possible with tho wind free, so long 

 as a course can bo sailed across the tide, which is im- 

 portant, as then, as the line is paid out, the snoud;* drift 

 clear of it. The linns aro neatly coiled, and with tho 

 baited hooks are laid in trays all ready for running, each 

 tray containing from 12 to IG pieces of line, and as the 

 vessel sails slowly along, the whole length of line is 

 gradually put overboard A small anchor at every 40 

 fathoms keeps the line steady on the ground, and its posi- 

 tion at the two ends and at every intermediate mile is 

 marked by a conical buoy or " dan," with a statf passed 

 through it and carrying a small flag. When after a few 

 hours the tide has nearly come to an end, the smack, which 

 meanwhile has been hove to in the neighbourhood of the 

 last buoy, gets the end of the line on board and works in 

 short tacks along its course, the line being hauled in, and 

 the fish taken off the hooks as she proceeds. When the 

 wind is very light a boat is used for hauling in the line, 

 and tho fish are kept alive in the stem of the boat, which 

 is partitioned ofT so as to form a watertight division. lu 

 any case the strong and lively fish are transferred as soon 

 us possible to the ship's well, and dead fish, or those which 

 do not apiiear likely to live in the well, are stowed away in 

 ice. Tiie season for long-lining is during winter, and the 

 fishery is carried on both on the Dogger Bank and on well- 

 known ground off the coast of Norfolk. In April this 

 fishery comes to an .»d, and a few of the smacks go away 

 hand-lining to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, salting the 

 fish they catch there, and usually landing it at Shetland. 

 In July hand-line fishing for cod begins in the home waters, 

 and is continued till October, the commencement of the 

 long-line fishery of which we have just spoken. The July 

 fishery is at a distance of from 10 to 30 miles from the 

 coiist, as the ai)proach of the herrings to the land at that time 

 causes a great gathering of cod in their neighbourhood. The 

 smack is hove to when hand-lining, and each man works with 

 a single line furnished with from two to six hooks. On the 

 return of the vessel to Grimsby after a few days, the fish 

 are taken out of the well by means of long handled landing 

 nets, and are put into wooden chests which are kept float- 

 ing in the fish-dock. These chests are 7 feet long, 4 feet 

 wide, and 2 feet deep, and are constructed so that there is 

 a free circulation of the water through them. The water 

 in the dock at Grimsby being quiet, the chests are made 

 with the ends square ; but at Harwich, another storing 

 place for live cod, the chests are moored in the tideway, 

 and have the ends boat-shaped, so as to offer less resistance 

 to the stream. There are about 400 of these chests in use 

 at Grimsby during the height of the cod season, and as 

 many as from 15,000 to 20,0U0 live cod in them at a time. 

 There is a great advantage in thus storing these fish, as 

 they can always be sent quite fresh to market, and only as 

 many forwarded as there is a demand for. Killing the cod 

 for market is a strange scene, and it goes on daily during 

 the season. Each chest will hold from 40 to 100 cod 

 according to their size, and when the fish are wanted, a 

 chest is hauled alongside a hulk kept '.n the dock for the 



> A wash is a stainped measure capable of boldiag tweuly-une qaurta 

 and a pint of watw. 



