Ii6 THE SEA FISHERIES 



It will be understood from the provisions of the Act of 1750, 

 quoted above, that these bounties were only claimable by vessels 

 of over 20 tons burthen, that is vessels which were decked and 

 capable of keeping the sea. Since there was aheady in Scotland 

 a fishery for herring, carried on close inshore and in sheltered lochs 

 by open or half-decked boats of less than 20 ton burthen, and which 

 vessels were not in receipt of any bounty, it follows that there was 

 much jealousy and opposition on the part of the boat fishermen 

 to the buss fishery. The Act of 1787 first recognised the claim of 

 the boat fishermen to a share of the bounty, and they were now 

 allowed to claim a bounty of is. per barrel ; nine years later in- 

 creased to 2s. per barrel. 



This boat fishery deserves more than passing reference. Ap- 

 parently it was more developed on the west coast of Scotland 

 and in the Hebrides than elsewhere. There is evidence that French 

 and Spaniards trafficked for fish with the Hebrides from very 

 early times. The Hebridean fishery was the subject of regulation 

 in the reign of James III, each boat paying a certain quantity of 

 fish to the Crown, which formed a part of the hereditary revenue. 

 There was also an inshore fishery in the Clyde and Loch Fyne, 

 chiefly carried on by the inhabitants of Glasgow, Dumbarton and 

 Ayrshire.^ In the reign of Charles II, when the Royal Company, 

 of which the King was a partner, took up the herring fisheries, they 

 built a large house at Greenock. When the Company dissolved in 

 1684 their buildings at Greenock were purchased at public sale by 

 the magistrates and town council of Glasgow, who prosecuted the 

 Clyde fisheries with perseverance and success. This fishery was 

 carried on in little boats, each with a crew of four men and provided 

 with twenty-four nets, every net being 6 fathoms long and i^ in 

 breadth. Of these boats 900 were frequently employed, the fishmg 

 lasting from 25th July to Christmas. Some of the herrings were 

 sold locally, some converted into reds, but the greater proportion 

 was exported. In 1674 20,400 barrels were exported to Rochelle. 

 This fishery decayed after the union ; it did not benefit by the earher 

 Bounty Acts, and it was the Act of 1787 which first recognised the 

 claim of these men to the bounty. In I797 there were in Scotland 

 707 such boats not on the tonnage bounty, manned by 2618 men. 



The boat fishery was also carried on off the east coast of Scotland, 

 on the coast of Caithness and in the Firth of Forth. 



1 '• A view of the British Empire, more especially fotland:^^h some proposals 



S^^^^pS-T?oh^ ^^^^.^^^^^^^^^- -''-' 



'^"'-Appendix VI to 2nd Report on State of British Herring Fisheries, 1798, PP- 

 280-281. 



