2i6 THE SEA FISHERIES 



Acts (1894 and 1906), a fishing boat being a trawler of 25 tons 

 tonnage or upwards shall not go to sea from any port ot the United 

 Kingdom imless provided with a duly certificated skipper and a 

 duly certificated second hand. This requirement was extended to 

 all liners and drifters of 50 tons gross tonnage and upwards, pro- 

 pelled by steam or other mechanical power, by an Order of the 

 Board of Trade, dated 20th December, 1909, such Order to come 

 into force on ist July, 1910. Service certificates were granted, as 

 in the case of trawlers, to men acting as skippers or second hands 

 who complied with certain conditions when the regulation came 

 into operation. The official regulations issued by the Board of 

 Trade contain full information of the requirements at each examina- 

 tion. Apart from these examinations in Navigation and Seaman- 

 ship there is no test required from fishermen, unless ability to read, 

 write and cipher be considered one. The question of instruction 

 in other subjects, such as first-aid or ambulance work, net -making 

 and net -mending, the use of internal-combustion engines in fishing 

 craft, to adult fishermen can hardly be considered in detail here. 

 On the whole, and subject to certain reservations, the available 

 evidence is against the instruction of adult fishermen in these 

 subjects. The tendency of recent years is to raise the standard of 

 attainment necessary for success at the Board of Trade examina- 

 tions, but it seems absurd that the same class of certificate should 

 be granted to the skipper of a smack which rarely exceeds a distance 

 of 50 miles from his home port and to the man who takes a large 

 steam trawler to the White Sea in the depth of winter. Registra- 

 tion of the vessel in the Isle of Man affords one way of escape from 

 the rigours of the Board of Trade examination, another method is 

 to endeavour, in the case of a sailing trawler, to get the vessel 

 registered as a fraction of a ton under 25. 



In Germany 1 there are three different professional tests laid down 

 by the State for fishermen. The German fisheries are for this 

 purpose divided into (i) Coastal ; (2) Lesser deep-sea (to 61 N. 

 latitude and in the English Channel) ; (3) Middle deep-sea (to 61 

 N latitude 30 W. and 50 E. longitude from Greenwich) ; (4) Greater 

 deep-sea (anywhere not included in the above, e.g. Morocco and the 

 Spanish coasts) . The skipper of a coastal fishing boat is not required 

 to pass an examination. The skippers of vessels belonging to classes 

 2 to 4 inclusive must pass examinations of varymg degrees ot 



*^' A^"a?increasing number of fishing vessels of all kmds are now 

 propelled by steam some notice of the education of engmeers tor 



X See Deutsche^ Seefischerei Almanack for 1905. Hahn'sche Buchhandlung. 

 Hanover und Leipzig. 



