76 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



case that the process of " turning round " the trawlers and 

 drifters from war to fishing work was accomplished rather too 

 quicklv. A large number of steam-fishing vessels were built by 

 the Government during the war and an attempt was made to 

 hand many of these over to the " Mine-Sweepers' Co-operative 

 Association " — a fine and generous project which deserved 

 better than to be launched during a time of slump and aban- 

 doned in little over a year. This scheme, and the futile 

 taking-over of the German " Reparation trawlers " are indica- 

 tions of the extent to which Ministers had " sized up " the 

 situation of the steam-fishing industry hi 1919. So much, then, 

 for the conditions of the last two years — at the present time 

 (March, 1920) there is the certainty, either of an extensive 

 laying-up of trawlers when the Lent fishing season comes to an 

 end, or of a marked break in wages. 



Smack-fishing was thoroughly decadent long before the 

 war period, and the years 1914-1919 hastened the rate of decline 

 so that (unless, perhaps, the price of coal remains at its present 

 value) this branch of deep-sea fishing will soon become extinct 

 in England. About 1885-1890 there were nearly 100 fine 

 smacks sailing out from Fleetwood and Hoylake : now there 

 are 17, and it is said that even some of these are on the market. 

 The history of the old Fleetwood vessel " Mary Ashcroft " is 

 symbolic : She was built at Maldon, in Essex, in 1798, and 

 after fishing in the North Sea for about half a century she was 

 brought through the Caledonian Canal (in 1860) by Mr. Hugh 

 Ashcroft and Pilot John Hesketh to Fleetwood, from where 

 she fished till 1904 when she was wrecked on entering White- 

 haven Harbour, and was then bought by Mr. Charles Pater, 

 of that port, for £20 ; raised, refitted, and sent again to sea to be 

 finally condemned as unseaworthy in 1917. Thus ended an 

 honourable fishing career of 119 years during which those who- 

 worked this old vessel saw the great development of smacking, 

 which culminated in 1885, and saw also the beginning of the 



