304 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Formerly the cook and third hand were apprenticed to the master or 
owner of a smack for a term of years, and when their apprenticeship 
expired they were promoted to higher grades. This system has been 
much modified, if not abolished, by recent acts of Parliament, one of 
which, the “ Merchant Seaman (payment of wages and rating) Act,” of 
1830, it is alleged, had a bad effect on the crews, since it took away the 
control which the owners had previously possessed over their appren- 
tices. It also combined with other causes to materially decrease 
the number of apprentices from Grimsby and Hull, and their places 
were filled by inexperienced boys, taken from other trades, who fre- 
quently did not stay long enough on board the vessels to become ser- 
viceable and trustworthy. It has been put in evidence that — 
“In some cases the skippers and second hands were not so efficient 
as formerly, though as a rule this was not the case; but the fear was 
generally expressed that this would steadily and rapidly increase as the 
existing men die out, and only men with inferior training are coming 
on to fill their places. * * * 
“The deep-sea fisherman’s vocation appears to be a specialty, which 
requires time and special training to master, and one not easily taken 
up by the average seaman, however well trained in ordinary trades.” 1 
The fishermen employed in the British beam trawl fishery are a hardy, 
robust class of men, and are distinguished for professional skill, bravery, 
and dogged perseverance; qualities which are such marked character- 
istics of seamen of the Anglo Saxon race in all parts of the world. The 
majority of them are trained to the sea from childhood. A constant 
association with the perils and vicissitudes of a fisherman’s life imbues 
them even at an early age with a sense of responsibility and fearless- 
ness, qualifications which are necessary to their professional suc- 
cess. Then, too, the impressionable minds of the boys who constitute 
a portion of every trawler’s crew soon become well stored with a knowl- 
edge of the details of fisherman’s seamanship. Not only do the younger 
members of the crew learn the ordinary duties of a seaman, such as to 
“hand, reef, and steer,” but they become familiar, as has been shown, 
with the construction and manipulation of fishing apparatus, acquire 
a knowledge of the different kinds of fisli and their respective value, 
and later on secure important information relative to the fishing grounds 
and the seasons when fish are most abundant in special localities. All 
of this knowledge is, of course, of vital importance to the fisherman 
who aspires to success in his calling, and though the boy who begins 
his sea life at an early age may perhaps be deprived of many advant- 
ages that others may enjoy for obtaining a school education, it is, never- 
theless, more likely that he will make a better and more successful 
fisherman than if he had more knowledge of books and less of his 
calling. Therefore, notwithstanding the system of apprenticeship which 
1 Report to the Board of Trade on the system of deep-sea trawl fishing in the North 
Sea, London, 1883, p. 10, 
