Photo by A. 13. Wilse 



COD FISHERMEN AND THEIR CATCH 



In the production of eggs the cod is one of the most prolific of all species of fish. It 

 is estimated that the turbot spawns 9,000,000 eggs a season, the cod 6,000,000, the mackerel 

 700,000, and the herring 50,000. The young cod is about an inch in length at the end of 

 spring and has to reach two years of age before being fit to market. They do not reach 

 maturity until the end of their third vear. 



makes one think that some inferno has 

 found an abiding place there. 



Over 600 steam trawlers operate from 

 this port in times of peace. A special 

 harbor has been built for the fish trade. 

 There are two entrances to it, an outer 

 basin containing 12 acres, an inner basin 

 of 15 acres, and two dry-docks. The 

 market, built on the quay, is a vast shed 

 nearly a mile and a half long and two 

 stories high. The building is equipped 

 with numerous unloading cranes and end- 

 less-chain elevators. On the farther side 

 of the shed are the railway lines, and it 

 is not an unusual sight to see four trains 

 being loaded at a time. 



There is always a race for position 

 between the hundred or more trawlers 

 that ascend the Humber as soon as the 

 tidal gates are opened in the morning, for 

 at Grimsby the parallel of "first come. 



first served" is "first at the dock, first un- 

 loaded" ; and time is too precious in the 

 fishing season to stay away from the fish- 

 ing banks a minute longer than necessary. 



BUSY DAYS IN GRIMSBY 



The sale begins at the northern end of 

 the shed, and never did a British admiral 

 of the Royal Navy rnaneuver more dex- 

 terously for position than do the captains 

 of Grimsby trawlers. A veritable scrim- 

 mage of hurrying vessels, every now and 

 then bumping into one another by bow 

 or beam, makes the onlooker M^onder how 

 serious collisions are averted ; and yet 

 there are few of these to record. 



The trawlers tie up, bows to the quay, 

 in closely packed ranks. Unloading be- 

 gins at once. Great baskets are hoisted 

 from the holds, laden with fish. Other 

 baskets go down to take their places, and 



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