KING HERRING 



713 



THE HERRING FLEET AT YARMOUTH, ENGLAND 



governor of a herring fishery company 

 with a capital of £500,000, whose mem- 

 bers "were among the first men in the 

 kingdom," one of the promoters being 

 General James Oglethorpe, founder of 

 the State of Georgia. Stock was taken 

 with eagerness, vessels were built quickly, 

 and efforts were made to learn the secrets 

 of the Dutch methods of curing herring ; 

 but the company soon suspended and its 

 failure cast on the English herring fish- 

 ery an odium that continued for a long 

 time. 



It is a matter of great historical inter- 

 est that the herring fisheries should have 

 been a prime, and perhaps the most im- 

 portant, factor in the overthrow of 

 Charles I, whose attitude toward the de- 

 velopment of home and colonial fisheries 

 was most unreasonable and unfortunate. 

 At a time when the Dutch herring fishery 

 had attained such magnitude and impor- 

 tance that it was regarded as the "right 

 arm of Holland," and when the sturdy 

 Dutch fishermen were pursuing their lu- 

 crative calling under the encouragement 

 of their government, the English people 

 were chafing under the grievous restric- 



tions imposed, by royal approval, on all 

 who desired to engage in fishing any- 

 where off the American coast between 

 the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of 

 north latitude. This effort on the part of 

 the crown to interfere with the cherished 

 privilege of "free fishing" had begun 

 under James and was bequeathed to 

 Charles, and was perhaps the first in the 

 series of far-reaching differences that 

 sprung up relative to the prerogatives of 

 the crown as against the rights of the 

 subject. At the same time there was an- 

 other restriction placed on the fishermen 

 at home. When James ascended the 

 throne of England his navy consisted of 

 but thirteen vessels, and Charles suc- 

 ceeded to a war fleet but little stronger 

 and utterly inadequate to cope with the 

 navy of the Dutch or French. 



After Charles had been successfully 

 opposed by the Commons in his plan to 

 have no fishing conducted on the Ameri- 

 can shores except by permission of the 

 company of "noblemen, knights, and gen- 

 tlemen," known as the Council of Ply- 

 mouth, he levied "ship money" on the 

 fishing and mercantile vessels at home 



