herring season, which commences at the close of the mackerel season on the Scottish coast, though the herrings do not reach our south-eastern coast till the end of September.
Hastings, Filey, Scarborough, Whitby, Folkstone, Dover, Shoreham, Newhaven, Kingsdown, Plymouth, Ramsgate, and Rye, send a great many boats to the mackerel fishery. The domestic economy of the luggers is precisely similar to that of the herring boats, and they carry the same number of hands. They live well, principally on good fresh beef, beef puddings, dumplings, sweet cake, and plenty of green vegetables, and drink coffee, tea, water, fresh milk, and a little rum, but carry no spirits to sea. The cost of living is estimated at 1l. per day for each boat of seven hands, and that clears all expenses. The boy on board acts as cook, and caters and washes for the crew. Many crews treat these boys with great generosity and consideration, exempting them from the harder portion of the work, and evincing in their rough manner much practical kindliness. I have witnessed some touching instances of this, and, indeed, kind treatment is the rule rather than the exception. In some boats the boy takes an equal share of the money earned with the men, but it is more usual to accord him a half share, or to pay him a trifling amount weekly; and he has, as I have observed, generally a brother or staunch friend in the same boat who looks after his comfort and interests as far as may be practicable.
There is probably no fish the price of which varies so much in the market as the mackerel; and, as it is in great demand, the London buyers can usually clear off their stock without difficulty. It is a fish, however, that speedily loses its delicate flavour, and on that account is only to be eaten in perfection at sea side places. No fish so quickly dies when once out of the water; the splendid prismatic brilliancy of its colours, when first taken, fades with the life of the fish, and gives place to a mottled blue and green shade far less beautiful. I am told, on reliable authority, that the “seine” fishing, as practised on the Devonshire and Cornwall coasts, is a very curious sight; but I have never yet had the good fortune to witness a “take” with the “seine net.” By this method the fishermen enclose the mackerel in a circular net, and, standing on the beach, thus haul them in. Such a practice may occasionally, no doubt, be very successful, and should the “catch” be large, must afford a pretty spectacle; but I should imagine the method I have treated of in this paper to be less precarious, and, as a rule, more profitable. Turbots, and even salmon, I believe, are caught in the “seine” net, and, of course, a great quantity of refuse, such as crabs and inferior fish. In fact, from all I can gather, the “seine net” must be exceedingly like the “trawl;” and if so, the mackerel thus caught would, I should suppose, be more likely to get bruised than those caught in the regular mackerel nets. A set of nets is a very expensive affair indeed, a good set of either herring or mackerel nets are worth from 120l. to 200l., and often more, so that if a boat loses her nets, she loses “the means whereby she lives.” The mackerel boats are usually constructed on the principle of shares, the boat taking one-third of the gains for her expenses, and the hands sharing the other two-thirds. On the Yorkshire coast, at Filey and Scarborough, for instance, the yawls sometimes belong to owners who pay the crew regular weekly wages, and take their chance of a loss or profit.
I think myself that the “share principle” is undoubtedly the best, as all parties have then an interest in increasing the “take” of mackerel, and go to work “with a will.” In May and June a small shoal of mackerel, known amongst fishermen as “in-shore mackerel,” will come grubbing along the coast at not more than a mile or so from the beach, and many are thus taken by the little sailing punts that abound in all fishing towns. It takes but two men to manage one of these boats, and if they can take a hundred, or even half a hundred fish per night with their little “fleet” of nets, it pays them well.
I have been at some little pains to ascertain the averages of “takes,” and of the men’s earnings each season, and the other statistics given above; and though I have occasionally found a difference of opinion prevail, I have no doubt whatever that I am pretty correct. Perhaps I may further say (though these exceptions only add double force to the rule) that I have known a crew to earn 50l. per man in a good season, and that the largest “take” I ever knew of by one boat in a single night was 48,000 fish. I have heard of 100,000 fish being taken; but such a case never came under my own notice as regards mackerel, though I have known herring boats frequently to exceed that amount of fish. The boat I mention as having taken 48,000 mackerel in a single night was a small boat, and she had even more fish in her nets, but was compelled to shake them out, being afraid to risk carrying them as there was a heavy sea running. It must be borne in mind that in counting or “telling” herrings, 132 fish are reckoned to the hundred, so that a “last” is in fact far more than 10,000 fish, and possibly this is not known to many of my readers. Mackerel fishermen, when about to prosecute their calling, always like to see what they term a “goodish” breeze, that is to say, a light fresh wind, which, without being a gale, is yet sufficiently strong to “ruffle” the surface of the sea considerably. These light breezes, yet so powerful in their effects, frequently occur towards the end of May, and in the first two weeks of June; and hence mackerel-fishers have a saying amongst themselves, that
When the corn is in the ear,
The Mackerel begin to stir.
