BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 325 
beam -trawl are almost as much a part of the apparatus as the trawl it- 
self, and the successful prosecution of the fishery has, perhaps, been more 
dependent upon improved appliances for manipulating the gear than 
on anything else. The descriptions which follow are based chiefly on a. 
study of the two Grimsby smacks upon which I sailed and which sub- 
sequent investigation has shown to be fair representatives of their class. 
(a). The Capstan. 
Several forms of hand-power capstans have been used for working 
the beam-trawl. The increase in the size of the vessels and fishing ap- 
paratus has not, as a rule, been followed by an increase in the number 
of men constituting a smack’s crew, and as, of course, greater power is 
required to heave up the large trawls now in use, this has to be supplied 
by improved capstans, which are so constructed by a system of cog- 
wheels and ratchets (see Fig. 11), that as many as four different purchases 
can be obtained on some of them, the first being a very quick motion 
for pulling in slack warp ; the fourth, a slow but most powerful one for 
a very heavy pull, while the others are intermediate ; various degrees of 
power and quickness being thus combined in the same implement. 
The necessity which exists for having increased facilities to raise the 
trawl from the bottom has led to the introduction, of late, of steam as a 
motive power for working the capstan, which is generally so made that 
it can be worked by hand as well, in case anything should make it im- 
practicable to use steam. A vertical boiler and vertical engine are most 
commonly, if not exclusively, used, and the whole is made as simple as 
possible, in order that it maybe managed by the fishermen with very little 
trouble. (See Plate XIII.) Steam capstans were first used on sailing 
trawlers in 1864, when the firm of Fowler & McCollin, of Hull, fitted one 
