MY 



Thirtieth Annual Report 



out for lining, but the venture was not a success, the causes of com- 

 parative failure being the same as those operating in the case of the 

 regular steam liners. Both classes of vessel were also handicapped 

 by the lower prices which prevailed owing to the exceptionally warm 

 summer. 



III. Beam and Otter Trawl Vessels. 



The fleet of Scottish steam trawlers showed a net increase of 8 dur- 

 ing 1911, the number at Aberdeen being augmented by 11, and at 

 Peterhead by 1, while the Leith and Montrose figures showed a 

 decrease of 3 and 1 respectively. The value of the vessels and their 

 gear exhibited a corresponding increase of £74,165. The prospects of 

 a further increase to the fleet are, however, not meantime very bright, 

 as the operations during 1911 were decidedly less successful than in 

 1910, mainly owing to the warm summer and the consequent low 

 prices realised. 



IV. Motor Fishing Boats. 



A study of the table (App. A, No. I., p. 8) relating to 

 motor fishing boats shows that the marine oil engine is still 

 making distinct headway, only 6 of the 27 fishery districts not 

 being represented in the return. There is now (1911) a fleet 

 of 233 motor-propelled boats, as compared with 156 in 1910, 

 and 75 in 1909, the increase of 77 in 1911 being distributed thus: — 

 East Coast, 23 ; Orkney and Shetland, 8 ; and the West Coast, 46. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that on the East Coast the favour 

 with which the oil-engine has been received is confined largely to 

 southern districts — Eyemouth in particular, whose fleet increased by 

 50 per cent, in 1911 (22 to 33) — and that motor-propulsion for fishing 

 boats is still regarded with disfavour in Moray Firth districts. This 

 is due to some extent to the early prejudice of the Moray Firth fisher- 

 men against the motor-engine owing to the numerous breaks-down of 

 the original models which came under their observation, but it 

 must also be ascribed to the long distances Moray Firth boats have to 

 run to the fishing grounds in all states of w r eather, and there is no 

 doubt that even yet the steamer possesses considerable advantages 

 under bad weather conditions in its greater " flexibility," its power to 

 make a passage more or less direct against a head sea, its power to do 

 actual fishing work in heavy weather, and generally its better sea- 

 going qualities. 



These conditions, of course, operate much less strongly in the com- 

 paratively sheltered Firth of Clyde and the lochs on the West Coast 

 generally, and here accordingly the greatest progress is being made. 

 No fewer than 46 additions were made to the 1910 fleet of 81, 

 practically half of the increase being credited to the Loch Fyne area, 

 and two-thirds of the remainder to other Clyde districts. 



Of course, it must be kept in view that the boats into which motor- 

 engines are being installed on the East Coast are of quite a different 

 type from those on the West Coast. In the former case, the craft are 

 practically all of the large first-class type, which proceed considerable 

 distances to sea in pursuit of the herring ; in the latter, the boats are 



