JAMES I; MARE LIBERUM 15 
the last,! they must make much more than the sum of one 
million of pounds sterling yearly: ‘A most worthy sight 
it were, if they were my own countrymen, yet have I taken 
pleasure in being amongst them, to behold the neatness of 
their ships and fishermen, how every man knoweth his own 
place, and all labouring merrily together, whereby the 
poorest sort of themselves, their wives and children, are 
well maintained, and no want seen amongst them.” 
He remarks upon their commencing the fishing at the 
Isle of Shetland, “ which is his Majesty’s Dominion,” and 
says that as many as forty ships of war have been seen with 
the fishing fleet to guard them from their enemies, and 
particularly from the privateers from Dunkirk, the terror 
of the North Sea at this time. 
Arrived at Shetland, the vessels put into “‘ Bracy’s Sound,” 
where the fishermen made holiday until the legal date in 
June for the commencing of the fishing : ‘‘ There they frolic 
it on land, until that they have sucked out all the marrow 
of the malt and good Scotch ale, which is the best liquor 
that the island doth afford.” 
The fishing once started, the Hollanders continued to 
follow the shoals of herring as far as Yarmouth, the herring 
fleet being attended by “ Herring-yagers,”’ which brought 
1 Herrings are measured in Scotland by the cran. A cran contains 
36 gallons and holds from about 800 to 1000 herrings. A barrel of full 
herrings contains 700 to 750 fish. 
In Ireland and the Isle of Man, herrings are measured by the mease, 
which contains 525 fish. 
In England, herrings are usually sold by the last, each last nominally 
containing 10,000, but in reality 13,200 fish. 
The Last, a German word, is computed in this way : 
4 herrings 1 warp. 
33 warps 1 hundred. 
10 hundreds - 1 thousand. 
Keymore’s Observations. 
2Dutch records of the early seventeenth century are full of accounts 
of regular naval battles between the convoying vessels of the Dutch fleet 
and the privateers, Beaujon’s Essay, p. 59. 
