THE ROYAL FISHERY 107 
of all promise of convoy, however, the fear inspired by the 
Dutch was such that it was but rarely that owners ven- 
tured to allow their vessels to leave port, and the North Sea 
was almost deserted both by merchant ships and by fishing 
vessels. Thus, in 1672, while the war was still raging, 
the crew of a solitary fishing vessel belonging to Yarmouth 
who had braved the dangers of the voyage to the North 
Sea fishing grounds reported on returning that “sailing 
all along the coast they saw not one sail since they came 
out of their fishing grounds till they came here.” 
A state of affairs which drove English commerce from 
the seas for such a considerable period must have ruined 
many English shipowners and done incalculable harm to all 
connected with the fishing industry. When the war with 
the Dutch ended, the Royal Fishery Company had ceased 
to exist. The close of the first phase of the war had seen 
the company on the verge of ruin, its governors petitioning 
the king for a grant of the monopoly of coining farthings 
as the only means of maintaining the already feeble existence 
of the society. The end of the second phase of the war 
brought no similar appeal from the company; the war 
had brought its business to a standstill and the enterprise 
had been abandoned, its vessels being left to deteriorate into 
useless hulks. This is brought out in a letter written in 
1674, when the war had just ended, by a certain Mr. Roger 
L’Estrange, who was already seeking to promote a new 
fishing company, to a Mr. Williamson. Concerning the 
ships belonging to the Royal Fishery Company, he writes, 
“His Majesty has several vessels that lie rotting for want 
of care and employment, many of which were built for the 
_fishing.’’? 
Even when the Royal Fishery Company was thus sinking 
to oblivion, however, there were not wanting pamphleteers 
to represent the folly of allowing the fishing industry to 
1Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 361, No. 235, 
