70 CHANGES IN TRAWLING VESSELS. 



string. The rate of speed when trawling is, as formerly, about 

 2 J knots an hour, though on muddy ground a higher rate is 

 sometimes maintained. In sailing, the best ships go about 

 11 knots. At night the captain and mate take watch alter- 

 nately — with one of the crew. 



The crews on board the trawling ships remain very much as 

 in 1884, the usual number being eight, though there are only 

 seven in the Montrose paddle-ships, one of whom is cook. The 

 latter may be either an old man or an adolescent. Each is 

 furnished in the newest ships with a life-jacket of cork, and 

 there are besides two life-buoys on deck. Only two at Aber- 

 deen, the captain and mate, now have a percentage on the 

 amount of fishes captured. The rest of the crew have ordinary 

 wages. At Montrose the captain and two fishermen have a 

 share in the ' catch ' ; the rest have wages. There are seven 

 men on board the ships of the General Steam Fishing 

 Company at Grant on, instead of eight as formerly. The per- 

 centages given to each remain almost as in 1884, a graduated 

 series running from the ' deck-hands ' to the captain. The first 

 engineer gets 5s., and the second Ss. 4td. per ton of fishes. 



In 1884 the Granton General Fishing Company's ships used 

 ' cringles ' in transferring, during stormy weather, the fish- 

 boxes to the ' carrier ' for the day. This practice has now been 

 abandoned, and the ships either run to quiet water, and place 

 the boxes on the deck of the ' carrier,' or they are at once trans- 

 ferred by boarding. It is during the latter operation that con- 

 siderable injuries occur to the bulwarks and rail of the ships, 

 the former having the stays bent, and the latter being frequently 

 driven in. 



One of the newest ships ^ at Aberdeen is a steel vessel — 

 with a well — for fishing at Iceland and Faroe. It is 103 feet 

 between the perpendiculars, and 114 feet on deck, 21 feet broad, 

 and 12^ deep. The well is one of Houston and Mackie's patent 

 fish-wells, and occupies the entire centre of the ship, the roof 

 of the well sloping inward about half-way up the side of the 

 ship, and leading to the hatches — the opening thus being much 

 smaller than the bottom. The water accordingly will be some- 

 1 ' Ocean Bride ' — Mr Drummond's. 



