Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 124, vol. III, May 15, 1886

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 124, VOL. III, MAY 15, 1886 ***

[Illustration:

CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART

Fifth Series

ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832

CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)

NO. 124.—VOL. III. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1886. PRICE 1½_d._]

THE HERRING-FISHERY AND FISHERMEN.

IN TWO PARTS.—PART I.

The herring-fishery has been prosecuted more or less by the inhabitants of this country for several hundred years, and the industry has been long recognised not only as an important factor in the food-supply of the country, but as one of the most valuable export trades in Scotland. The catching of herrings received a good deal of attention from the fishing population last century; but as the prosecution of the fishing was marked by great irregularities, the fishermen became disheartened at the repeated failures in the catch, and being unacquainted with any proper mode of curing and salting herrings that would have enabled them to take advantage of prolific seasons, the industry began to languish and decay. The government, however, incited by the success of enterprising Dutchmen engaged in the fishery, saw the prospects of developing, under enlightened auspices and unmeasured energy, a vast sphere of operations; and with the view of encouraging both fishermen and fishcurers to engage in the industry, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1750, and another in 1753, offering substantial bounties to all boats employed in the herring-fishery; which was followed up in 1809 by payment of a bounty of two shillings for every barrel of herrings cured, accompanied by an allowance of two and eightpence per barrel exported. From 1815 to 1826 the export rate was deleted; but the bounty per barrel cured was in the last-mentioned year raised to four shillings; while in the four succeeding years, a yearly reduction of one shilling took place; and in 1830, when the trade was fairly established, the government bounties were abolished.

The fostering care bestowed upon the herring-trade was fruitful of great results; and our countrymen, who had looked upon the Dutch fishery, with all its technicalities, as quite unapproachable, were gratified to find that the Scotch herring-industry was destined to take first rank both in extent and excellence of cure. What was still more satisfactory to those who had seen it in its struggling days, instead of requiring a continuance of state aid, it was soon able to repay all advances made from the revenue arising from fees paid by fishcurers for receiving the government brand certifying the contents and quality of the barrels, the annual income of which now averages nearly eight thousand pounds.

The regular prosecution of the fishing on the north and north-east coasts may be said not to have commenced till 1815; but from that date, it has been looked upon as a staple industry; and its success or failure has influenced to an enormous extent the comfort or poverty of the communities inhabiting the smaller towns scattered along the eastern shores of Scotland. In the early part of this century, the quantity of fish salted presented a very sober account; and in 1810, the grand total cured in Scotland, England, and the Isle of Man was only 90,185 barrels; while in 1851, the total for Scotland and the Isle of Man was 594,031 barrels. From 1851 till 1870, a period of inactivity prevailed, and the official statistics year after year were abundant proof that the spirit of enterprise was sadly deficient, or that the notoriously capricious herrings had betaken themselves to other waters. Whether the deficiency in the catch was attributable to lack of energy on the part of curers and fishermen, or a long-continued scarcity of fish, is a problem yet unsolved; but it remains on record that the total quantity cured in 1851 was 594,031 barrels; while in 1869 it had only increased to 675,143 barrels. In 1870, Scotland alone produced 833,160 barrels; while in the season of 1884, the total quantity cured reached the enormous figures of 1,697,000 barrels!

It will thus be seen that this great fishing, which is now the mainstay of a vast population extending round the shores of Scotland, has gone on progressing till it has reached a position entitling it to rank among the greatest industries of the country. The money value of the fishing presents a fairly intelligent view of the progress made during the last fifty years in its prosecution; and the figures given confirm the inexhaustible riches of the sea, and prove the boundless deep to be a mine of wealth, only now beginning to receive the attention which it deserves. The value of the fishing in 1810 was about seventy thousand pounds; and though it was subject to reverses now and again, it gradually gained in dimensions until 1851, when its value was half a million sterling! In 1870, the catch yielded about nine hundred and sixteen thousand five hundred pounds; whereas in 1884 the total quantity cured represented a sum of two million one hundred and twenty-one thousand three hundred and forty-six pounds; which is equal to the rentals of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Nairn, Inverness, Cromarty, Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness—or the annual value of nearly a half of that of the total area of Scotland.

Along with other improvements, the increase in the number and size of the herring-boats forms an interesting feature in the trade, and is a striking proof of the immense resources at the command of the fishermen. Not only has the numerical strength of the fleet increased greatly, but the size and style of the boats have also changed immensely; and the craft measuring thirty-five feet of keel and fourteen feet of beam, used in 1830-50, have given place to handsome and substantially built vessels, averaging fifty-six feet from stem to stern, and not under eighteen and a half feet of beam, whose burden runs from twenty-five to forty registered tons. Although the demand for herrings has gone on increasing steadily, the tastes of former large consumers have shown remarkable changes, and those—especially the inhabitants of Ireland—who in the early days of the fishing were the best customers of the Scotch curers, now but very moderately recognise salt herrings as an article of food. In 1821, the exportation of salted herrings to Ireland was 125,445 barrels; to the continent, 89,524; and to places out of Europe, 79,836: whereas in 1851 the figures were, Ireland, 66,138; continent, 198,403; places out of Europe, 2367: and in 1884, Ireland, 34,000; continent, 1,149,000; places out of Europe, 960 barrels. The radical changes in the quantities of fish consumed at the different markets in the course of half a century are rather striking; but Ireland has, it is said, largely substituted bacon and other cheap food for the once much-prized fish; while the almost complete collapse of the colonial trade is directly caused by the emancipation of the West Indian slaves, who were provided by their masters with salted herrings as the leading article of fare, and who, in order to efface all recollections of their former degradation, studiously avoided touching the herring after their liberty was secured!

Although not the rule, a number of fishermen often commence fishing for herrings at various ports on the east coast early in July; but it is generally not until about the 20th of the month that the fishermen’s regular engagements commence and operations are begun in earnest. At that date the fishcurers are bound to receive the fish at twenty shillings per cran—one cran being equal to a capacity of thirty-seven gallons, and reckoned to contain about eight hundred herrings—from early morning till twelve o’clock midnight; and should the weather prove favourable and the shoals abundant, a single crew of energetic men have often earned no less than one hundred pounds in the first week of the fishing, and continued the work with such success, that at the end of the season of eight weeks, a sum of five hundred pounds stood at their credit in the fishcurer’s books. In recent years, the boats have largely increased at the leading ports of Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Aberdeen, and Wick, where the numbers employed during the season vary from seven or eight hundred at Fraserburgh, down to four hundred at Aberdeen—not to mention the enormous recent increase at Shetland—each boat being manned by six men and one boy. The extent of netting in use has also largely increased.

For a considerable period of the season the boats prosecute the fishing on the banks from forty to sixty miles away, gradually nearing the shore as the season advances; but in no season imitating the modest efforts of the fishermen of forty or fifty years ago, who never ventured more than ten or fifteen miles off, with the result that the fish, undisturbed in their inward course, were caught in large quantities quite close to the shore. With regard to those days, many of the old people now living on the Aberdeenshire coast have a vivid recollection of the extraordinary excitement that existed in the fishing-towns one or two generations ago when the word passed round that ‘a body’ of herrings had at length appeared in the bay, the indications of which were a dense flock of seagulls to be seen preying upon the finny tribe, or a large shoal of whales pursuing the fish—the manœuvres of the former attracting the fishermen to their mark, and afforded an interesting sight to those on the shore.

At this stage of its history, one of the most serious drawbacks to the prosperity of the herring-fishery was the immense shoals of dogfish which regularly visited the north-east coast during the months of July and August, to the almost complete prostration of the fishermen’s efforts; for not only did those rapacious fishes greatly destroy the nets in their pursuit of food, but the herrings, which seemed to have a wholesome dread of this enemy, immediately disappeared from their usual haunts whenever the dogfish arrived upon the ground. It was no uncommon thing to see boat-loadfuls of dogfish brought in daily by the fishermen, from whom they were purchased by farmers and crofters for manuring the land, and also for the purpose of providing oil for domestic uses; as, before paraffine or candles had come within the reach of all, a great portion of the lamp-oil used by the poorer classes, on the Aberdeenshire coast at least, was extracted from dogfish. After having visited the coast bound by the German Ocean more or less regularly for sixty or seventy years, the dogfish mysteriously disappeared in 1866; and though they are still met with at intervals by fishermen at the west coast herring-fishing (Lewis and Barra) and at Shetland, they have never again returned to the east coast; a freak of nature which has puzzled the most intelligent fishcurer or fisherman to explain, but which has wielded an influence for good scarcely conceivable, since the disappearance of these pests from the adjacent seas marked the setting in of a tide of prosperity in the trade which has never again receded. The greatly increased size and number of boats, and the competition for herrings existing in the trade, have rendered inshore fishing next to impossible; and as it is generally the case that herrings are now more abundant at sea than near the land, the anxiety to secure good takes is year by year drawing the fishermen to more distant grounds; hence, there are reasonable prospects that ere many years have elapsed, the prosecution of the fishing will have developed into the regular employment of large smacks and steam-craft able to venture great distances to sea, and, if need be, remain there till a sufficient catch has been obtained.

* * * * *

Having given a short sketch of the rise and progress of the Scotch herring business, some notes on the social aspect of the industry, and a general description of the present mode of catching and curing the fish, will probably prove interesting to those who have not been privileged to visit any of the great fishing-towns during the months of July and August, a time of each year when the mighty herring constitutes the sole topic of conversation.

At the harbours of the herring-towns in the end of June and beginning of July, boats are arriving from north, south, and west laden with all kinds of household goods; and uppermost are the fisher-folk’s beds and blankets, upon which are lying the wives and children, who have been taken by this route to save the expense of a trip by rail, but whose condition, from the effects of stormy seas, often demonstrates the folly of the fishermen’s financial policy. In addition to the fishermen and their belongings, every train brings hundreds of Highlanders from Inverness, Sutherland, Ross, and the Isles in search of employment on board the boats; and they, in conjunction with the influx of crofters (to be engaged for carting purposes), tramps, itinerant dealers, preaching representatives of various denominations, &c., soon swell the normal population by many thousands, and form as motley a crowd as can be well imagined. The fishing-towns of Aberdeenshire and more northern ports awaken, after a protracted period of somnolence, to the fact that the season of activity has arrived; and the streets which formerly looked bare and deserted, now teem with men, women, and children, all drawn together to share in the spoils of the deep. Order in such a miscellaneous population is sometimes not easily maintained, and the surging and unruly masses which on a Saturday night congregate about the leading thoroughfares tax the energies of the police to the uttermost; and if the Highlanders be on the ‘warpath’ from the effects of too liberal potations of their own ‘mountain dew,’ the question of local government has to be settled by military force—an instance of which took place at Fraserburgh in 1874, when fully a thousand Highlanders in an infuriated condition wrecked the police station, bombarded the town-house, and threatened to burn the town, and were only brought to their senses by the arrival of a detachment of soldiers from Aberdeen.

The evening of the seventh day of the week is invariably one of confusion, noise, and fight in every large fishing-town; but throughout the other nights, all frivolities are cast aside, and the single aim of the whole community is to secure as rich a harvest of herrings as possible. Under ordinary circumstances, the sight afforded by the departure from the harbour of so many craft crawling lazily along in twos, threes, and half-dozens, is very pretty; but when the prospects of a good fishing are exercising the fishermen’s minds, and every one is anxious to reach the fishing-ground early, the excitement and competition among the fishermen to secure a good start, transforms the harbour channel into a scene of the wildest confusion, where the fishermen shout, threaten, and at times deal blows at each other, playing tragedy and comedy in turns, to the intense delight of those watching their movements from the piers. Should the weather be favourable, the boats keep constantly streaming from the harbour-mouth; and if a fresh breeze prevails, a very short time will suffice to fill the bay with hundreds of the handy little craft, gaily ploughing their eastward course to the fishing-ground. By-and-by the horizon for a considerable stretch will be dotted with their brown sails, still holding onwards; and only when the sea and clouds join hands, do they finally disappear in the wide waste of waters.

On leaving the harbour and getting the sails set and trimmed, the crew of the craft betake themselves to comfortable quarters among the nets and spare sails lying about the deck, where local yarns are told, and the Highlanders sing Gaelic songs, or rehearse the leading incidents of their life in the Western Isles since last ‘she’ was in the east coast; but as the fishing-ground is neared, the stories cease, and every one, from the skipper down to the ‘scummer’ boy—the lad who is employed with a small hand-net to pick any herrings out of the water that happen to fall from the nets—eagerly scans the water in hopes of descrying indications of fish. Should the wished-for appearances be discovered, so much the better; but it often happens that no certain proofs of the existence of fish are obtained, and after reaching a distance where fish are supposed to abound, the sails are lowered, and the men commence to cast the nets into the sea in the dusk of the evening. In doing this, a small portion of the sail is hoisted, and while the craft moves slowly through the water, the fishermen continue casting their nets overboard, until their fleet of say, fifty, nets, attached to one another, and extending in a direct line for a length of two thousand yards, are shot, the whole hanging perpendicularly in the water, and suspended from a rope, to which is fastened skin or metallic buoys floating on the surface of the water. When the whole of the nets belonging to the boats engaged at a large station are set, the sea for a stretch of many miles is one complete network, from which the herrings can scarcely escape; and the work falling upon the fishermen nightly in shooting and hauling their nets may be guessed from the fact that the netting used by the Scotch fishermen, if stretched in a direct line, would extend ten thousand miles, or something like three times across the Atlantic.

Having got the nets safely into the deep, the mast is lowered, the light hoisted, and everything put into its proper place for the night; and as the craft drifts slowly along with the wind or tide, surrounded by hundreds of other fishing-boats, not a sound is heard save the occasional whistle of a steamer slowly threading its way through the floating hamlet, or the shrill cry of the expectant seabirds. On board the boats, the crews have retired to rest, with the exception of one or two left to act as the watch, but who, when their conversation runs dry, invariably seek change in the arms of Morpheus, and trust to providence to fulfil the duties which they had undertaken. Once or twice during the night the skipper causes a net or two to be pulled up; and if the prospects of a successful fishing are good, the position occupied is retained; but if no herrings are in the nets, it is not uncommon for the crew to remove to another spot, in hopes of meeting in with better luck, where the labour of shooting the nets has again to be undergone.

As the morning breaks, the crews bestir themselves, and at an early hour the work of hauling commences, which being accomplished sooner or later, according to the weight of fish secured, all canvas is set upon the craft; and as she speeds steadily through the sea, causing the wavelets rippling at the bow to sparkle brilliantly in the morning sun, the crew, all unconscious of the glorious panorama spread before them, actively engage in shaking the herrings out of the nets and otherwise preparing for discharging their catch on reaching the harbour. As the net hangs like a curtain in the water, herring in their progress get their heads into the meshes, whence they cannot retreat, and are thus held captive till the nets are hauled on board and the fish shaken into the hold. On many occasions the herrings strike so densely that almost a whole complement of nets sink to the bottom, which often entails a loss upon a single crew of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds; while at other times the craft are so deeply laden with the precious freight, that they run the harbour for a distance of perhaps forty miles, with the water occasionally playing upon their decks, and only saved from foundering by the extreme calmness of the weather. In many seasons, the fishing proves a complete blank for a protracted period; and as the whole community in the fishing-towns is entirely dependent upon the success of the industry, such occasions throw the spirits of everybody below zero, and the usual bustle and smiling faces give place to solemn countenances; and curers, coopers, and others stand in groups on the piers and at the street corners discussing the fishermen’s chances and prophesying the result of next week’s fishing.