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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
especially on account of the tide and sea and wind. This is not 
very plain to the uninitiated, and as I am not anxious to make 
you expert trawlers, T will spare you this part of the trawler's art. 
In the days of our oldest trawlers the only moans of raising 
their gear was the obsolete stick -winch — superseded by the 
cog-wheel winch and capstan, and now being rapidly outdone by 
steam power. 
But it is fish the trawler wants ; and where to get it, and when best 
to get it, is of course after all the great thing, and especially what sort 
is worth getting, and how best to make the calling profitable. 
In former days the hake was of great importance, because of its 
numbers, its being most wholesome food, and being found close 
to our shores. Soles, plaice, and kindred kinds of flat-fish were 
also in fair quantities ; and as Trawling was chiefly confined to 
our western shores, and there was a falling off now and again 
from perfectly natural causes, it was necessary that other fishing 
grounds not very much explored should be tried. So as time went 
on, and the spirit of enterprise was not entirely extinct in our 
Devonshire men, eventually the North Sea became the field of 
operations for some three months of the year — the celebrated 
" Silver Pits " having more attraction than any other place, chiefly 
because enormous quantities of soles were caught there, which 
were then, as now, in great demand, and always fetched high 
prices in London, especially during Lent. 
This enterprise on the part of our Devonshire men resulted in 
many of them and their families settling at Eamsgate, Hull, 
Grimsby, and Lowestoft, which ports to-day, with Great Yar- 
mouth and Scarborough, are the principal fishing stations for 
Trawling purposes in Great Britain ; and the development at each 
port would require a special paper to fully describe it. 
But at this point it will be interesting if I give the case of 
Great Grimsby. 
About thirty years ago there were three smacks fishing out of 
that port. Hull at that time being fairly well established, many 
smacks were hailing thence, and a regular fishing trade was being 
carried on there (already established by Devonshire men), especially 
as the dock accommodation was equal to the requirements of 
the fishing. 
But it occurred to some among them that Grimsby being many 
