"2 THE SEA FISHERIES 



profit to the Society will stand as under on each buss-tonnaee 



deduct . per cent for ch^Jes^^of^.^^^^^^^^^^ 



insurance equal to 4 per cent. The bounty of a^Sd perw 



will pay the cooperage and charges." ^ "^^' 



It is plain that the Company is now in a bad way. 



l-ater the warm impressing of seamen " was a great obstacle 

 to the lettmg out of busses. It was found " fruitles?" oTet ot 

 any this season, occasioned chiefly by the high wages." Snos 

 all the busmess was now left in the hands of Captain Yoaklev who 



call for 5 per cent. In June. 1755, there were 103 members of the 

 Society, many of them women, the amount of stock held varying 

 from £3000 to £7 14s. iid. On 3rd July there is an entry " pS 

 posals for the provisioning of twenty-five busses for Yarmouth 

 fishmg to be obtained.;' The jagers were to provide themselves 

 from Germany. The minutes become more and more fragmentary 

 and htt e mformation is given. In October. 1755, it was resolved 

 that at the close of the Yarmouth fishing all the busses be brought 

 up the Thames, " as they had suffered damage from the worms " 

 and that all the Orkneymen be discharged at London. The crews 

 were now chiefly from the Orkneys, engaged under contract. 



On the 30th October a sum of ;f2ii7 os. 5d. was received from the 

 Commissioners of Customs, presumably for bounties under the Act 

 of 1750. and it was resolved that it be divided as follows : £1930 4s. 

 among the proprietors of the Society at the rate of £1 gs. 7d. on the 

 sums both respectively paid in ; and to the Chamber of White- 

 haven, £91 2s. 8d. ; to that of Montrose, £55 i8s. 5d. ; and to that 

 of Edinburgh, £39 i5s. It was also suggested that the busses should 

 be offered to the Admiralty " for a consideration in the present 

 conjuncture of affairs." 



There was correspondence with the Admiralty in March, 1756. 

 regarding " protection " (firom the press gang) for 230 men em- 

 ployed at Southwold, in refitting the busses and making the nets 

 for the approaching fishing, and for sixty coopers and twenty ship- 

 wrights. The Admiralty asked the reason so many were required, 

 since last year only eighty-two were asked for. It then appears 

 that in 1755 they had only fitted out twenty-five busses and five 

 jagers, and in 1756 there were thirty busses and six jagers. By the 

 Act of 1750 the crew of each buss was to consist of seventeen men. 

 which with eight men for each jager, gave a total of 567. There 

 were now remonstrances to Yoakley for spending so much money, 

 and a complaint that it was because he was not at Shetland last 



