350 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Admiral's signals by night. 
For sailing White rocket at intervals. 
For tacking Flare on quarter and a white rocket. 
For trawling on port tack Three flares and a red rocket. 
For trawling on starboard tack Three flares and a green rocket. 
For hauling (getting the trawl) Two flares and two white rockets at one 
time. 
For laying to One flare at mast-head and one on the quar- 
ter with a white rocket. 
In strong winds the fleet sometimes get scattered, and to facilitate their gathering 
again without loss of time, different places of rendezvous are arranged according to 
the season of the year, thus : 
From February 1 to March 1 Tail end of the Dogger. 
From March 1 to August 1 Off the Horn Reef Light-boat. 
From August 1 to October 1 Clay Deeps. 
From October 1 to February 1 The Silver Pits. 
These are well-known places to all fishermen.” 
Messrs. Hewett & Co., of London, are reputed to have been the first 
to establish the fleeting system, which they did by arranging to have 
the large number of smacks they owned combined into one or more 
fleets, that, as now, were controlled by an admiral, while each day’s 
catch was shipped on board of a swift-sailing cutter which took th'efish 
to market, several of these cutters being in attendance on a fleet so that 
no time was lost. In all weathers these a carriers ” could be seen hov- 
ering about the North Sea fleets, and nowhere in the history of seafaring 
life can there probably be found any better examples of courage and 
hardihood than were exhibited by the crews of these cutters. Winter 
or summer, so long as they could show any canvas, they were driven 
through all weathers almost to the verge of destruction. The object 
was to bring the fish to market fresh, and so long as this was accom- 
plished little was thought of hardships, perils, and discomforts, which 
it is difficult for one to imagine who has not had tho exf>erience of con- 
tinually forcing a passage at sea in a small and deeply-laden vessel. 
Even at the present time, at least as late at 1880, essentially the same 
system was carried on from Hull and Grimsby ; a limited number — any- 
where from ten to thirty— vessels would combine interests and form a 
fleet, which frequently would be all the property of one firm. These ves- 
sels would, as a rule, all share alike, and the smacks took turns in carry- 
ing the catch to port, the admiral’s flag being transferred to some other 
craft when his u turn” came to go to market. A fleet of this kind is 
called a u cutter fleet ” 1 in distinction from the u steamer fleets,” which 
1 Sometimes tbe crew of the cutter which receives and carries the fish to market 
pack the cargo in bulk, putting ice among the fish, as on the single-boaters, rather 
than to use boxes. .A fleet, therefore, which sends its catch to market by one of its 
own sailing vessels is often called a “ bulking fleet,” because of this system of pack- 
ing fish in bulk. 
