86 THE COMMONWEALTH 
busses by both English and Dutch war vessels. The English 
fishing fleet had to run the gauntlet not only from Dutch 
war vessels but also from Dunkirk and Ostend privateers 
and sea rovers; in addition it was frequently attacked by 
that portion of the English fleet which still remained loyal 
to the king and now sailed under command of Prince Rupert. 
To meet these dangers, it had been customary, in the years 
immediately preceding the actual declaration of war, to 
detail a number of warships to convoy the fishing fleet with 
orders to preserve “the ancient and indubitable dominion 
of the sea.’’ 2 
In 1653 the Dutch owners, seeing the impossibility of 
securing their vessels from the attacks of the English fleet, 
kept their fishing fleet, which still consisted of some 2000 
vessels, at home. The war did no less damage to the 
English fishing industry, such towns as Yarmouth, which 
depended almost entirely on the fishing industry, being 
almost ruined. In desperation, the inhabitants of Yarmouth 
in December, 1652, made complaint to General Monk, 
stating that they had already lost £200,000, “to the utter 
undoing of many families,” and that, if the war continued, 
the town would be inevitably ruined, since fishing was 
practically at a standstill. ‘‘ Not three boats are now 
preparing to go forth fishing,” they declared, “‘ where 150 
sail used to be making ready at this season.” * 
The struggle, however, was too grim, the opposing sides 
_too keenly alive to the issues at stake, for the hearing of 
complaints from injured individual communities. The con- 
flict went on with unabated vigour in the North Sea, while 
the English government also made preparations to meet the 
Dutch in the Hebrides and in the Orkney and Shetland 
1Cal. S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, 1649-50, pp. 128, 138, 165, 200, 201, 
205, 263, 264, 285, 297. 
2 Cal. S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, 1649-50, pp. 484-5. 
3 Beaujon’s Essay, pp. 67-68. 
4Cal. S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, vol. 32, No. 165. 
