The Herring Fishery. 



55 



ing and curing the herrings, employed many thousand 

 more seamen for managing the merchant vessels which 

 carried the produce of the fisheries to the various ports of 

 the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Thus, by cultivating 

 and encouraging the herring fishery, the Dutch formed 

 themselves into a great maritime power, and in the days of 

 Oliver Cromwell possessed a navy not inferior to that of 

 England. 



In the fifteenth century the Dutch had 700 large vessels 

 employed in the fishery, and the quantity of fish they 

 caught was estimated at 30,000,000 a year ; in the seven- 

 teenth century the quantity rose to 50,000,000; but it has 

 since greatly declined. The English fishermen take at 

 present about 7,000,000 tons annually, and the Dutch not 

 more than 35,000. In the year 1650 the Dutch had 5000 

 " busses," or large decked fishing luggers, on the east coast 

 of Scotland ; they were manned by 50,000 fishermen, and 

 from this source the Dutch navy, so long the most formi- 

 dable on the North Sea, was chiefly manned. The north- 

 east coast of Scotland was chiefly the locality of the Dutch 

 fisheries, and here they had to compete with the Norse 

 fishers, who had possession of the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands and a great part of the Caithness coast, the creeks 

 and harbours in which were used for the coast fisheries, 

 while the larger vessels kept the sea. 



The Dutch herrings, though caught almost on the same 

 ground as the English or Scotch, fetch a higher price than 

 any other in the world, and are eaten raw as a relish in 

 Holland and Germany. The first barrel of new herrings 

 that is taken is forwarded to the king at the Hague. It is 

 carried in procession with banners and military music ; the 

 day is one of public rejoicing, and a few of the new herrings 

 are sent as presents to the nobles of the land. The Dutch 



