MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE HERRING FISHERY. 
579 
death roll was so small, only two fishermen being drowned. The 
damage done, however, to property was enormous, and its effects 
will be felt for a very long time. Hardly a boat came through the 
gale unscathed, and the record of the losses sustained was an almost 
interminable list of vessels lost, or of damage done to nets, gear, 
masts, and rigging.” From Lowestoft, says the same correspondent: 
“ Tempted by the fineness of the weather, a larger number than 
usual of the drifters were at sea, and hardly one of them escaped 
severe damage and loss of gear. All through the Sunday, and 
early part of Monday, the gale continued, and it was not until the 
end of the week that the full tale was told. It was found that one 
boat, the ‘ May,’ had gone down with her crew of nine hands, and 
that isolated cases of loss of life brought the total up to fourteen 
useful lives lost. Besides this, much suffering was endured at sea 
through broken limbs, and other severe injuries at the hands of the 
sea.” The loss of gear, both at Yarmouth ami Lowestoft, was 
estimated at many thousand pounds ; the Scotch fleet at once took 
their departure, and many of the home boats were compelled to 
“make up,” it being impossible to supply all of them with nets, in 
place of those they had lost. The result was that at Yarmouth, in 
the month of November, only 3,792 lasts of Herrings were landed, 
against 7,082 lasts in the corresponding month of the previous 
season, and at Lowestoft only 2,108, compared with 4,580 lasts 
in 1892. 
The fishing never recovered from the effects of the gale, and was 
very slack indeed until its close in the middle of Ltecember, the 
shoals having been broken up and dispersed by the bad weather, 
which continued very unsettled, the final result being that in 
December Yarmouth and Lowestoft made returns of 695 and 448 
lasts respectively, as compared with 1,229 and 772 lasts in the 
previous season. The prices during this latter period ruled higher, 
but the quantity was so small, and those who participated in them 
comparatively so few, that there was no opportunity of retrieving 
the losses already incurred. 
It sometimes happens that although bad for one or more sections 
of the numerous classes interested in the Herring Fishery, the 
season may still have proved satisfactory to others, but I fear that 
of 1893 must bo pronounced equally profitless to all those 
immediately concerned, and through them to the still more 
