TRAWLING. 
375 
TEAWLING. 
BY BENJAMIN J. RIDGE. 
(Read November 25tii, 1886.) 
The early history of Trawling is somewhat obscure. Historians 
and chroniclers have given abundant reliable information about 
the Drift Net Fishing, as it relates to Herring, Pilchard, and 
Mackerel; to the use of the Seine Net for both Mackerel and 
Pilchard ; and also on what is curiously termed Trawling for 
Herring in the lochs of Scotland, which is properly an adapta- 
tion of the Seine Net ; and there is much to be found, written by 
one and another, concerning the use of hand-lines (hook and line 
fishing). But there does not appear to be any very clear or reliable 
account as regards Trawling, which differs very widely from any 
of the methods already mentioned, both as to the net used, and 
the fish to be caught, and the seas to get the fish from. It is 
generally considered to have been first practised in our own country 
about a hundred and fifty years ago. 
Froude indeed, in his History of England, 1 speaks incidentally of 
trawlers at Brixham so long ago as the time of the Spanish Armada, 
in the description of the English attack on the Spanish fleet ; 
" Drake, returning from the chase, came up with her [the Cajritana, 
the admiral's disabled ship] in the morning. She struck her flag, 
and he took her with him to Torbay, where he left her to the care 
of Brixham fishermen. The prize proved of unexpected value ; 
many casks of reals w r ere found in her, and, infinitely more im- 
portant, some tons of gunpowder, with which the Roebuck, the 
swiftest trawler in the harbour, flew in pursuit of the fleet." But 
as the Roebuck is also mentioned as being an armoured vessel, 
it is rather doubtful whether she was a trawler. 
It is generally held that Trawling began by our Devonshire 
fishermen about a hundred and fifty years ago ; and that they were 
the first to practice it in this country, and became the pioneers of 
1 Vol. xii. p. 397, cabinet edition, 1870, 
VOL. ix. 2 D 
