SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING FISHING VESSELS. 
181 
There are two distinct systems of fishing adopted by the trawling smacks. One 
is called “fleeting,” and the other the “single-boating” system. When pursuing 
ti e former an arrangement is made between a number of vessels to fish in company, 
thus forming a fleet, one of the captains, an experienced fisherman, being appointed 
pro tern, as an “ admiral,” whose duty and privilege it is to decide upon what grounds 
the fleet he commands shall fish, and by a system of signals he controls and directs 
the movements and operations of all the smacks following his flag. The others put 
out their gear in response to a signal from the admiral, and they all head on the same 
tack, towing their trawls together in the same direction. 
“In connection with each of the fleets there are several steam-vessels, called 
steam -cutters, which ply to and fro between the fleet and the port where the fish has 
to be discharged, generally Loudon, Hull, or Grimsby. One of these cutters is gen- 
erally arriving every day at the fleet, and the fish which have been caught by the 
smacks, and have on board of them been packed in boxes, are transferred or boarded 
in the smacks’ boats to the steam -cutter, with which she then goes back to her port 
of discharge. The smacks engaged in fleeting remain at sea for periods varying from 
six to eight or ten weeks, when they return to their port to refit. From Yarmouth 
there are about six hundred and seventy smacks engaged in fleeting and thirty in 
single-boating all the winter and summer; from Hull one hundred and fifty or two 
hundred are 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 engaged in fleeting; 
and from Grimsby there are about three hundred engaged in fleeting and 100 in 
single-boating in summer ; but none of them go fleeting in winter.” ^ 
Messrs. Hewett & Co., of London, who own a large fleet of trawlers, have the 
reputation of being the first to introduce the system of fleeting. Their carriers at 
first were swift-sailing cutters like the trawlers now employed at Brixham. 
“ These carriers,” writes Dunell, “ would visit the North Sea fleet and bring in 
the fish in all weathers. Perhaps in the whole history of sea-faring life there has 
never been a better example of the courage and endurance of sailors than was shown 
by the skippers and crews of the old sailing carriers. No matter what the time of year, 
so long as the boat could stagger under her canvas she was driven hard through all 
weathers. So great was the desire of the men to get their fish in that nothing was 
thought of danger and little of personal discomfort. Hardships that can be but 
faintly imagined by those who have not known what it is to be continually forcing a 
passage in winter at sea, were cheerfully undergone month after month by these men, 
they caring nothing so long as their fish were in time for the market.”* 
The importance of this carrying trade, as indicated by the foregoing statements, 
naturally led to the introduction of steam-vessels to take the place of sailing carriers, 
for it was soon found that adverse winds or calms rendered uncertain the supply of 
fresh fish, notwithstanding the fact that every possible effort was put forth by the 
crews of the cutters. Steam -carriers were sent out to take the fish from Hewett’s fleet 
as early as 1864, but they were not employed from Hull until 1880. 
These steamers, as a rule, have been designed especially for the trade. They 
are built of iron, generally not extremely sharp; the most important qualifications in 
* Report to the Board of Trade ou the system of deep-sea trawl-fishiug as conducted in the North 
Sea. London, 1883. 
“George R. Dunell, in (London) “ Engineeriirg, ” August 10, 1884. 
