THE RISE OF THE HERRING FISHERIES 105 



N.B.— Most of the Busses, are under sail, for the N.E. of 

 Shetland, in order to shoot their nets, (each whereof is 16 fathoms 

 long) and are allowd a mile for that purpose. Every Buss (Burden 

 near 80 tons, carrying about 17 men, and 50 nets) will frequently 

 catch, from 160 to .200 barrels ;— that is, near 130,000 herrmgs 

 at one haul. 



Published according to Act of Parliament Augt. 19th, 1752, by 

 Tho ; Jeffreys, at the Corner of St. Martin's Lane in the Strand, 

 London. 



TO give a detailed historical account of the development of 

 the herring fisheries in British waters is beyond the scope 

 of the present work. The pioneers of the modern herring 

 fisheries in the North Sea were the Dutch, ^ and their salt herring 

 trade was the result of the discovery of an improved means of 

 curing and pickling herring "by William Beukels of Biervelt.* The 

 method depended on the effective gutting of the fish. This was 

 about the middle of the fourteenth century, and the trade in this 

 product developed rapidly. Already in the fifteenth century cured 

 herring formed an important item in the diet of the English Army. 

 At the Battle of the Herrings (1429), the equivalent of what is now the 

 Army Service Corps, acting on the defensive, formed a laager of herring 

 barrels, and successfully beat off an attack by the French Army. 



In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thanks to the fisheries, 

 the Dutch became a great maritime and naval power, but it was not 

 until late in the latter century that determined efforts were made 

 by the British to wrest the supremacy in the North Sea herring 

 fisheries from the Dutch. Although James I asserted the rights 

 of the kings of England to " Dominium Maris," he did not push 

 things to extremes, and it was left to Charles I to take the first 

 serious steps against " the Hollanders and Hamburg tigers." 



The steps taken both by Charles I and Charles II consisted mainly 

 in the formation of Royal Fishery Companies. ^ One of the earliest 



* " The History of the Dutch Sea Fisheries," by A. Beau j on. International 

 Fisheries Exhibition Literature, London, 1883, Vol. IX, p. 299 ; and Fulton, " The 

 Sovereignty of the Sea." Edinburgh and London, 191 1. 



' Neucrantz, " De Harengo de exercitatio medica, in 'qua principis piscium 

 exquisitissima bonitas summaque gloria asscrta et vindicata," LubecK, 1654, p. 74. 

 " Primus quidem inter Belgas condiendi et in tonnis conservandi Harengi rationem 

 excogitasse fertur Gulielmus Beukelius, alius Beukeldius, magni nominis piscator, 

 qui in anno 1347 Biervlieti extremum vitae diem clausit ; ob quern momento sum 

 inventum posteritas etiam nunc reveretur viri memoriam. Carolus quintus, im- 

 perator, tanti hoc inventum fecit ut Biervlietum una cum sorore Maria, Hungariae 

 reginae adpellens sepulchrum Bucheldii adient veneratusque sit, haud sine memoria 

 ejus, tantique ad omnem posteritatem ab eo profecti beneficii celebratione ut 

 testantur, Joh Pontanus, etc." 



' The Royal Fishery Companies oj the Seventeenth Century, by J. R. Elder, Glasgow. 

 Maclehose and Sons, igi2. 



