of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



3 



to the lack of railway and steamer communication the efforts of the 

 administrative body were very much cramped. Nevertheless a large 

 number of our fishery piers and harbours were begun in the first 

 forty years of last century. 



The following figures are enough to illustrate the growth of the 

 Scottish herring fishery during the period in question, viz. : — 



1811 . . . . 90,000 barrels cured. 



1840 .. .. 500,000 do. 



1874 .. .. 1,000,000 do. 



1907 .. .. 2,500,000 do. 



Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Scottish 

 fishing-boats were all " open " or undecked, similar in build and rig 

 to the Shetland " sixer ns," of which a few are probably still in use ; 

 the great majority, of them were small boats of about 20 ft. long. 

 Half-decked boats of larger size and stronger build began to take 

 their place all round the country, and then, in the '60's and '70's, 

 another change took place — to fully decked boats of 45 ft., and soon 

 of 60 ft. long, drawing some 5 ft. of water, and costing from £300 to 

 £400, and later as much as £600. By about 1872 their great superiority 

 had become apparent to all ; the catch by these decked boats was 

 from four to five times that of the undecked ; they could follow the 

 shoals to a great distance — and it so happened that just about this 

 period the chief herring shoals tended to lie further off-shore than 

 they had done for some years previously ; and as a result boat-builders 

 were busy all round the coast building the new type of vessel. 



Steam was first applied to fishing vessels other than trawlers in 

 Scotland in the late eighties, and in 1892 there were 44 such 

 vessels. The modern steam drifter came into use about 1898, not 

 without much dislike and opposition on the part of the older men, 

 but its success was rapid, and the Scottish fleet of steam drifters now 

 consists of close upon 1000 vessels, valued at £4,500,000, and manned 

 by over 8500 men. Still more recently (with the help and encourage- 

 ment of the Fishery Board for Scotland) the installation of motor 

 engines in sail boats has taken place with greatly increasing rapidity 

 — though not until their usefulness had been recognised elsewhere 

 for several years, especially in the Scandinavian countries. From a 

 beginning in 1906 the Scottish motor fleet now numbers about 1500 

 boats, valued at £900,000, and manned by 7500 men. 



So recently as 1906 sail boats took 69 per cent, of the whole Scottish 

 herring catch ; eight years later, in 1914, they took only 19 per cent. 

 The immense revolution thus effected and the changes it made in 

 many ways (not least in regard to the greater harbour accommoda- 

 tion required) need not be emphasised. 



The introduction of steamers using the beam trawl into Scot- 

 land in 1882 marked a distinct epoch. The beam trawl was, however, 

 superseded in 1895 by the more efficient otter, and, although this 

 method of fishing was viewed with grave apprehension by a large 

 section of the fishing community, the fleet grew until in 1914 it numbered 

 332 vessels (now valued at £3,000,000), and manned by 3500 men. In 

 1889 the fish landed by trawlers in Scotland amounted to 140,000 cwt«., 

 and in 1914 to 2,000,000 cwts., while the rise of the great fishing port 

 of Aberdeen (also that of Granton — the onlv other important trawling 



