Iintroductory Statement

In these reports I shall not take into consideration the mMBIr methods of fishing which are practised in the locality, such, for instance, as eel spearing, mullet trapping, shrimp and prawn fishing, but shall confine myself to the most important branches, in which the beam trawl, drift and seine nets, and long lines are employed, and I shall also include crab and lobster fishing.

With reference to the class of boats employed in this neighbourhood, the trawlers, compared to those of the North Sea, are not of large size. The average boat is about forty-three tons. They are usually rigged as ketches (dandy-rig), but the smaller ones sometimes as cutters. The dandy-rig is preferred because with it there is not the very large mainsail and heavy boom of the cutter, and also because, like the yawl, where the mizzen mast is stepped behind instead of before the stern-post, the vessel can be more easily brought under easy canvas in heavy weather. These vessels only carry four men and a boy as crew, and therefore the question of ease in handling becomes one of great importance. Steam trawling is not practised from Plymouth, nor do the sailing trawlers fish in the “fleeting” system common in the North Sea, where many boats belong to one company and remain on the fishing grounds it may be for weeks, while their fish is carried to market by special steamers.

At Plymouth each trawler is worked independently, goes out to the fishing grounds east of the Eddystone, Mounts Bay, or Bristol Channel, and returns with its catch.