BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 351 
are much larger — numbering from seventy-five to one hundred vessels 
or more — and are attended by several ketch-rigged screw steamers, 
called steam cutters, which carry out a supply of empty boxes for the 
fleet, to take the place of those filled with fish, also provisions and let- 
ters for the fishermen. But their chief work is to carry the fish from the 
fleet to the port where they are to be landed, generally London, Grimsby, 
or Hull. 
“ One of these cutters is generally arriving every day at the fleet, and 
the fish which has been caught by the smacks, and has ou board of 
them been packed in boxes, is transferred or ‘ boarded’ in the smacks’ 
boats to the steam cutter, with which she then goes back to her port of 
discharge. 
“ Single boats also are in the habit of transferring their fish to these 
cutters if they chance to fall in with them, and if the cutter has room, 
which is usually the case, the steam cutters charging so much per box 
for carriage. 
“The smacks engaged in ‘fleeting’ remains at sea for periods vary, 
ing from six to eight to ten weeks, when they return to their port to re- 
fit. From Yarmouth there are about six hundred and seventy smacks 
engaged in ‘fleeting,’ and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
in ‘single boating’ in the winter, and in the summer nearly all are en- 
gaged in ‘fleeting,’ and from Grimsby there are about three hundred 
engaged in ‘fleeting’ and one hundred in single boating in summer, 
but none of them go fleeting in winter.” 1 
The same necessity exists now for getting the fish to market as soon 
as possible which led to the hard driving of the sailing carriers, and 
probably no vessels in the world are forced harder in all weathers than 
the steam carriers which now attend upon the North Sea fleets, and which 
rarely fail to make their passages from the most distant fishing grounds 
to Hull, Grimsby, or London, in from thirty-six to forty eight hours. 
A writer in Land and Water, who made a cruise in a North Sea trawler 
in December, and returned to port on a steam carrier, gives the follow- 
ing account of the passage, which will convey a good idea of the condi- 
tions under which these vessels frequently make their trips to or from 
the fishing grounds : “ It is impossible to convey even a general idea 
of the journey back without entering into an amount of nautical detail^ 
for w 7 hich I have not time. The present age is certainly remarkable for 
earnestness and zeal in most official men $ but there was in the dear, 
good, clever, brave, old man who brought that vessel home an intensity 
of devotion which it was positively refreshing to observe. He carried 
sail when the sea washed all over the ship, and every now and then 
came down in deluges into the stoke hole, all but extinguishing the 
furnaces. Ys to the little cabin, in which we were supposed to live, it 
was literally drowned, hardly a dry thing being left in it, and the little 
stove being almost instantly extinguished every time it was lighted. 
1 Report to the Board of Trade on the system of deep-sea trawl fishing, etc. 
