292 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
(Pet. 51, Edw. Ill, A. D. 1376-77. — Petition No. 50.) “That whereas 
in several places within your said realm, in creeks and havens of the 
sea, where was accustomed before these times to be a good and plen- 
teous fishery to the great profit of the realm, which is in part destroyed 
and rendered valueless for a long time to come, by some fishermen who 
have for times duriug seven years past by a subtlety contrived a new 
instrument, which is amongst themselves called a ‘wondy clioun,’ made 
after the fashion of a 4 dag’ for oysters, which is usually long, to which 
instrument is attached a net (ree) of so small a mesh, no manner offish, 
however small, entering within it can pass out, and is compelled to re- 
main therein and be taken. And besides this, the hard and long iron 
of the said ‘wondy choun,’ that it destroys the spawn and brood of the 
fish beneath the said water, and also destroys the spat of oysters, mus- 
cles, and other fish by which large fish are accustomed to live and be 
supported. By means of which instruments called ‘wondy chouns’ in 
many places aforesaid, the fishermen aforesaid take so great abundance 
of small fish aforesaid, that they know not what to do with them, to 
the great damage of the commons of the kingdom, and the destruction 
of the fisheries in like places. For which they pray remity. 
u Besponsio . — Let commission be made by qualified persons, to inquire 
and certify on the truth of this allegation, and thereon let right be done 
in the court of chancery.” 
The fishing towns of Brixham and Barking, in their local traditions, 
both lay claim to the distinction of having been the first to introduce 
and establish the method of fishing with beam-trawls, but, as these 
claims are based solely on tradition, it still remains a mooted question 
as to which is the most entitled to the honor. One writer has attempted 
to prove the probability of this method of fishing having been intro- 
duced by the Dutch on the occasion of the landing, at Brixham, of the 
Prince of Orange in 1688. 
He says, however, that “for the next hundred years there was no 
craft employed at Brixham at fishing, but open boats and half-deck 
yawls, the latter being the latest improvement. We have [lie continues] 
heard our graudsires relate how they used to put the whole apparatus, 
or gear, as it is now called, on their back and carry it on board of the 
boat. * * # Shortly after this time the fishermen began to enlarge 
their crafts, to cover in the deck, fore and aft, and rig them as cut- 
ters — namely, boom, gaff, and bowsprit, and with topmast having a long 
pole on which was set a royal with the sheets leading down on deck, the 
same as the Dutch Scheviling bombs of the present day, and most prob- 
ably the rig was taken from them.” 1 
The trawl-net, in various forms, has unquestionably been used in 
the continental fisheries of Europe for many years, but the application 
of the beam is apparently of more recent date. 
1 The Fisherman’s Magazine, March, 1881. 
