MR. A. H. PATTERSOX OX A DECAYED TRAWL-FISHERY. 31 
the number of men employed on the vessels — which may be 
roughly put at over 4000, added to the great number ashore 
who built and renovated and “ found ” these vessels with 
gear and stores, and all the other hangers-on in many other 
capacities, it will be seen at once that, financially, the decline of 
the local trawling industry was a disaster, great and far- 
reaching. 
For the hardness of the life the smacksman was not 
extravagantly well paid. A smack’s crew consisted of from 
six to seven hands, viz., skipper, mate, third hand, fourth 
hand, deck hand, spare hand (on large vessels) and boy ; 
whose respective wages were : skipper, 14s. a week and one 
shilling on the pound (termed poundage) ; mate, 18s. ; 3rd 
hand, 16s. ; 4th, 14s. ; 5th, 12s. ; spare, 10s. ; the boy getting 
from 7s. to 8s. The wives of married men “ drew ” a pro- 
portion of the wages weekly. 
The smacksmen generally were a rough, uncultivated lot 
of fellows, inured to a wild life, with few ambitions or cares ; 
the wife unfortunately had the hardest lot — to bring up often 
large families on very small means, and to see to their up- 
bringing — and a rude rearing it was, in far too many instances. 
Yet there were fellows who were intellectually and mentally 
far above their calling ; I knew one who gloated over 
Shakespeare in his leisure moments, another who caught 
various sea birds and preserved their skins, another who 
formed a small collection of stuffed fishes, while yet another 
painted in oils — flowers, and the like, that certainly ought to 
have recommended him to a potter’s painting room. Certain 
men took their guns to sea,* and shot various birds, which 
they threw on the ice to preserve, bringing them home to the 
local bird-dealers. In January, 1881, a great number of 
Glaucous Gulls were secured by a smacksman-sportsman. 
Skuas, Petrels, Ducks, and other interesting birds were at 
times killed. Occasionally a big retriever was taken to sea 
for the purposes of retrieving fowl. 
A great deal has been written upon trawling generally — 
Bertram ( Harvest of the Sea) discoursed racily on it, giving 
* Vide ' Notes of an East Coast Naturalist,’ pp. 58-62. 
