BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 367 
standing complaints that have been made concerning delay, seems to 
have reached a high state of perfection, and it would, no doubt, be 
to the advantage of the American fish trade if swift-running trains could 
I be employed in the United States, as in Great Britain, for transporting 
| fish. According to the Duke of Edinburgh, only about 400 tons of fish 
| were condemned at Billingsgate in the year 1881 as unfit for food, a 
large proportion of which was shell-fish. This, he thinks, speaks well 
for the system of carriage, as London receives a yearly supply of about 
143,000 tons of fish. 
I. Method of Dividing- the Profits. 
There are certain local differences for the division of the money ob- 
tained from sales of fish caught by trawling smacks, but the following 
table showing the apportionment of a trawling smack’s assumed earn- 
ings of £800, furnished by Mr. Sims, of Hull, and published in the re- 
port of the inquiry at Hull, by the Board of Trade, will give a clear idea 
of the methods adopted for settlement at the large trawling ports on 
the North Sea : 
Assuming that a smack earns £800 to u settle on,” that is, availa- 
ble for division between owners and crew : 
£ s. cl. 
The skipper’s share is . 137 10 0 
The second hand’s share is 112 10 0 
Provisions found by owner for the three other hands, say . . 60 00 0 
Wages for three other hands, say, £i 15s., and 10s. per week . .... 117 0 0 
Insurance, on £900, the assumed value of the vessel, at 3 percent 27 0 0 
Repairs for wear and tear of vessel, sails, spars, fishing-gear, cleaning 
bottom, etc 250 0 0 
Interest on £900 at 5 per cent 45 0 0 
Depreciation of vessel - 50 0 0 
799 0 0 
The skipper’s share 137 10 0 
Less provisions 20 0 0 
117 10 0 
or £2 5s. per week. 
Second hand’s share 112 10 0 
Less provisions ...... 20 0 0 
92 10 0 
or £1 15s. 4 d. per week. 
The foregoing statement suggests the approximate earnings of a first- 
class North Sea trawler and her crew. As a matter of course there is 
considerable variation in the amount earned by different vessels, some 
stocking more than £800 and others much less; the average gross 
earnings of sailing trawlers, according to Dunell, for the three years 
ending in 1883 was £650 per annum. 
