294 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
with remarkable rapidity, until now it is considered one of the most 
important fisheries of the British Isles, while in England it takes pre- 
cedence of all others. 
“The most important method of fishing,” writes Holdsworth, “by 
which a regular supply of the best and most varied kinds of sea fish is 
obtained for the market is that commonly known as L trawling 7 — a name 
evidently derived from trailing or dragging; the trawl being a bag-net 
which is towed, trailed, or trawled along the bottom; and it is so con- 
structed as to capture those fish especially which naturally keep upon 
or near the ground. 77 
The most noted ports in England from which trawling is prosecuted 
are on the east coast and most of them north of the Thames. They are, 
in the order of their importance as trawling stations, Yarmouth, Grims- 
by, Hull, Lowestoft, London, and Scarborough ; while Brixham, Rams- 
gate, Plymouth, and Dover, in the south of England, are noted for their 
trawling fleets. Carnarvon and Tenby, in Wales, have small fleets of 
trawlers. 
Aberdeen, Granton, and Leith, in Scotland, have each a number of 
trawling steamers, 1 though Mr. T. F. Robertson Carr, writing from 
Edinburgh under date of August 25, 1883, says: 
“The General Steam Fishing Company, limited, is the only beam- 
trawling company of any importance in Scotland, and their headquar- 
ters are at Granton in the Firth of Forth, close to Leith. 77 
When Holdsworth wrote in 1874, there was “ no beam-trawling station 
of any importance on the coast of Scotland. 77 The statement is made in 
the First Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 1882, that — 
“Beam trawling has been carried on for several years in the Moray 
Firth by sailing smacks and boats, principally belonging to Lossie- 
mouth; and it has also been prosecuted for a considerable period by 
sailing smacks and boats in the Firth of Clyde. Beam-trawling by 
steamers, which has been more recently adopted, has greatly increased 
within the last two or three years. 77 
According to the Scotsman of December 8, 1883 : 
“At the present moment the fleet of screw trawlers belonging to 
Granton numbers fifteen, and the capital thus employed in the industry 
here alone may be roughly estimated at between £40,000 and £50, 000. 77 
Dublin, Galway, Waterford, and Dingle are the principal stations in 
Ireland from which large vessels are employed in trawling. 
Besides all the fleets of large sailing smacks and steamers which en- 
1 Mr. David Allen, senior member of the building firm of D. Allen & Co., of Gran- 
ton, states that, in 1883, Aberdeen bad five screw boats and five paddle steam trawl- 
ers; Granton bad a fleet of nine screw steamers, while a dozen side-wheelers sailed 
from Leith. David Walker, trawl owner and skipper, of Johnshaven, before the 
Royal Co mrnission appointed to inquire as to trawling operations on the east coast of 
Scotland, 1883, says: “There are now seven sailing trawlers and one steam trawler 
belonging to Johnshaven, working generally from Red Head down to Bervie. For- 
merly they went to Aberdeen Bay.” 
