boats, and sold upon the beach. The fish are then washed, packed up in hampers, or “peds,” and sent off to the railway. The mackerel fishery realises many thousands annually, and employs a large number of vessels, with ten hands in each. The herring fishery,[1] however, is even a greater source of profit to the town, nearly double the number of both boats and hands being engaged in it.
The mackerel fishery begins the early part of May, and terminates in the first week in July; it is a complete voyage of adventure, both to owners and men, each participating in the amount of stock raised, according to their several stations and interests.
The deep-sea white herring fishery comes next in succession; the boats are obliged to be at the place of rendezvous, Brassey Sound, in the island of Shetland, by the twenty-second of June, where their nets, stores, and materials are examined, and their men mustered by the officer of the fishery residing there, who is appointed by the Board of Commission at Edinburgh. There is a bounty allowed of 3l. per ton on the admeasurement of the boat, and 4s. per barrel on the number of barrels of fish caught, and this fishery is regulated by Act of Parliament.
The Red Herring, or Home Fishery, for which this town and Lowestoft have been for a long time celebrated, commences a little before Michaelmas (though of modern years the seasons have been somewhat later than formerly), when the fish appear at first in small quantities upon the Norfolk shore, and in the neighbourhood of the sands. “The latter part of October,” says the author of a local guide-book, “is the season for the greatest plenty, and when the fish have attained their full growth (which seems not to be the case at first), they are ready to spawn and then become shotten; this event is hastened by stormy weather. The fish are caught in equal quantities in the mid-seas and near sands, and the range is from Smith’s Knoll (seldom to the north of it), to the foreland.”
The method of catching and curing herrings is as follows:—At the beginning of the season the boats sail off to sea, about ten leagues north-east from this port, in order to meet the shoals, or second part of the first division of herrings, which separate off the north part of Scotland. Being arrived on the fishing-ground in the evening (the proper time for fishing), they shoot out their nets, extending about 2200 yards in length, and eight in depth, which, by the help of small casks, called bowls, fastened on one side at a distance of thirty to forty yards from each other, are suspended in a perpendicular position beneath the surface of the water. If the quantity of fish caught in one night amount only to a few thousands, they are salted, and the vessels continue on the fishing-ground two or three nights longer, salting the fish as they are caught, till they have obtained a considerable quantity; when they bring them into the roads, where they are landed and lodged in the fish-houses. Sometimes, when the quantity of fish is very small, they will continue on the fishing-ground a week or ten days; but in general they bring them in every two or three days, and sometimes oftener, especially when the quantity amounts to six or seven lasts,[2] which often happens, and instances not unfrequently occur of a single boat bringing into the roads at one time fourteen to sixteen lasts. As soon as the herrings are brought on shore, they are carried to the fish-offices, where they are salted and laid in heaps on the floors, about two feet deep; after they have continued in this situation about fifty hours, the salt is washed from them by putting them into baskets and plunging them in water; thence they are carried to an adjoining apartment, where, after being pierced through the gills by small wooden spits, about four feet long, they are handed to the men in the upper part of the house, who place them at proper distances, beginning nearly as high as the top of the roof, and proceeding downwards, where they are cured or made red. The house being thus filled with herrings, many small wood fires are kindled underneath upon the floor, whose number is in proportion to the size of the room, and the smoke which ascends from these fires dries or cures the herrings. After the fish have hung in this manner about seven days, the fires are extinguished, that the oil and fat may drip down; about two days after, the fires are rekindled, and, after two more such drippings, the fires are kept continually burning until the herrings are perfectly cured; but this requires a longer or shorter time, according as they are designed for foreign or home consumption. After the herrings have hung a proper time, they are taken down (or “struck”), and packed away in barrels, containing eight hundred or one thousand each, and then shipped off for market. The ships receive the barrels on board in the harbour, and sail direct for the Mediterranean Ports. The trade formerly was chiefly confined to foreign parts, especially to Roman Catholic countries, only a small quantity being reserved for home consumption, but of late years the home consumption has greatly increased. This fishing terminates in November.
In 1784 there were equipped at this port, two Greenland ships, called The Yarmouth and The Norfolk; and afterwards no less than eight ships were fitted out for the Greenland and Davis’s Straits whale fisheries; this continued for several years, but owing to some partial failure of success, and perhaps still more to the want of a little perseverance, this trade was on a sudden relinquished, the ships and stores were sold to a great loss, and the whole concern totally abandoned. It is, however, to be hoped that this trade will hereafter be revived again through that enterprising spirit for which Yarmouth is so highly distinguished.
- ↑ That the herring-fishery of Yarmouth was formerly deemed interesting, is evident from Tom Nashe’s “Lenten Stuffe,” a curious pamphlet, written in 1598, containing eighty-three quarto pages; the title of it is “Nashe’s Lenten Stuffe; containing the Description and First Procreation and Increase of the Towne of Great Yarmouth, in Norffolke; with a New Play, never played before, of the Praise of the Red Herrings: Fitte of all Clearks of Noblemen’s Kitchins to be read; and not unnecessary by all Serving Men, that have short Boord-Wages, to be remembered.”
- ↑ A fisherman’s last of herrings is thirteen thousand two hundred, and a merchant’s last, ten thousand.
