Part 391 (1/2)
16,761. Is it the same kind of boats that are employed in all these different kinds of fis.h.i.+ng?-No; the fishermen have different kinds of boats to suit the different kinds of fis.h.i.+ng. In the herring season the owners have hired men in their boats, and each man has his skipper; whereas in the winter fis.h.i.+ng five or six or seven of these men go together and fish for themselves.
16,762. But that is still in the same kind of boat is it not?-The half-decked boat is used at Wick; but, in fact, they have boats to suit each fis.h.i.+ng that they wish to go to. They usually use the large herring boat for the cod fis.h.i.+ng, and a smaller boat for the haddock fis.h.i.+ng.
16,763. What is the size of a haddock boat?-I think it is about 26 or 30 feet keel, and open. There is now usually it small deck on it.
The large herring boat is from 36 to 42 feet keel; but the boats have increased greatly in size within the last eight or ten years.
16,764. Do you find that as the boats increase in size the fisherman is generally more successful?-Yes. They have the advantage of going a greater distance to sea and staying longer out when their boats are decked, and they return with heavier takes.
16,765. Are you acquainted, from your own experience, with the character of the boats which are used?-Yes. I have gone out to sea and seen how the fis.h.i.+ng was carried on.
16,766. Would you consider that a fis.h.i.+ng community was at great disadvantage, as compared with other communities, who used only open six-oared boats of about 21 or 22 feet keel?-They would be at a decided disadvantage.
16,767. Perhaps you are aware that that is the case in Shetland, and that in the haaf fis.h.i.+ng they go out twenty or thirty miles to sea, and remain out only for it single night at a time?-If they had the large lugger boats which we have on this coast, they could stay out for several nights, having provisions with them and room for their fish.
16,768. Are the large boats you refer to equally available for laying long lines in very deep water and on a rocky bottom?-I cannot say that. There would be more danger with them. They could not work large boats so easily as they could work the small ones.
16,769. What is the depth of water in which your large boats generally fish?-I can hardly say; but when they go out to the banks, thirty or forty miles off, they may fish in thirty or forty fathoms of water in the Moray Firth.
16,770. Perhaps your knowledge of the fis.h.i.+ng does not enable you to give much information about that?-No, not practically; but I have gone out three or four times in the season.
16,771. Do you know any district in Scotland or in England where the settlement with the fishermen takes place only once it year as it does in Shetland?-I understand there are two fis.h.i.+ngs in Shetland: the herring fis.h.i.+ng, and the cod and ling fis.h.i.+ng.
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16,772. It is the cod fis.h.i.+ng I am speaking of. Do you know any place except Shetland where the settlement for any kind of fis.h.i.+ng takes place only once a year?-I scarcely know how to answer that question.
16,773. In Shetland the cod and ling fis.h.i.+ng is the only one in which they fish for the curers,-leaving the herring fis.h.i.+ng out of account,-and they are paid for that only once a year, a considerable time after the end of the fis.h.i.+ng. Do you know any of the fis.h.i.+ng contracts in the kingdom which are settled at so long a period after the fis.h.i.+ng is over?-In Orkney the fishermen are settled with for the herring fis.h.i.+ng of August at the end of October.
That fis.h.i.+ng ends in the middle of September, and they are not settled with before the end of October.
16,774. But is it not the case that, in almost all the cases with which you are acquainted, there is a short season of from five to six weeks, or two to three months, and a settlement takes place at the end of it?-Yes, the final settlement takes place at the end; but at the beginning of the herring fis.h.i.+ng the men get an advance. As soon as the fis.h.i.+ng is done they get some money to clear off their current expenses, and to pay their hired men; and then about October or November they get a final settlement, when the season's transactions are settled for.
16,775. That is for the herring fis.h.i.+ng which commences when?- It commences on 20th July, and that is their great fis.h.i.+ng.
16,776. Then there is the Lewis herring fis.h.i.+ng, to which a great number of the same men who fish at Wick go?-Yes.
16,777. Is that settled before the herring fis.h.i.+ng at Wick begins again?-Yes; it is settled as soon as it is finished.
16,778. Then, if any of these herring fishermen go to the cod and ling fis.h.i.+ng in winter, that is settled for the end of that fis.h.i.+ng too?-Yes.
16,779. Some of them may perhaps go to the haddock fis.h.i.+ng in spring again, and that is settled weekly?-Yes. The haddock fis.h.i.+ng is usually settled weekly.
16,780. On the Moray Firth that makes up the whole fis.h.i.+ng seasons of the year?-It does.
16,781. And each of these is settled at its close?-Yes.
16,782. So that they will have four settlements in the course of the year?-Yes; four settlements for the various fis.h.i.+ngs. With regard to the men who go round to the Stornoway fis.h.i.+ng, it would scarcely be practicable to settle with them weekly, or before they return home, because of their distance from home and the peculiar nature of the business. The amount actually due to them could not be rightly ascertained until they came home, and all their accounts had been made up and settled.
16,783. Why is that?-Because, from the nature of our business, there are so many places where we give the fishermen the option to run into with their fish, and we would require all the books from these places to be handed over to us and checked, before we could proceed to settle with them.
16,784. Might these fish not be settled for at the station on delivery?-We could settle for them at the station on delivery; but we find so many mistakes occurring afterwards, that unless the books were first checked before the fishermen were paid, we would be apt to lose a good deal.