Part 18
“The Caithness fisheries have thus not only become a source of prosperity to the county, but have also become an object of national importance; and their further extension appears to be in a great measure dependent upon the increase of suitable harbour accommodation for the boats engaged in them. Harbours, more or less secure, have been formed from time to time at different creeks along the coast, from Wick southward, and the number of boats appears to have increased in the ratio of the accommodation provided for them. There is no reason to believe that the limit has yet been reached, or that, if the harbour accommodation were increased, the fisheries, more especially of herring, would not receive a corresponding development. But even now the population of the county is not nearly sufficient to supply the demand for hands during the fishing season, and some thousands of men from the west coast, find in Caithness, during that season, employment and wages, without which they could not subsist. The increase of harbour accommodation in Caithness, besides increasing the general amount of production, would thus afford additional employment to the inhabitants of the West Coast and Islands of Inverness, Ross, and Sutherland, who frequent the east coast fisheries because they cannot find sufficient employment at home.”[19]
We may add in connection with the above, that about 10,000 Highlanders pass across from west to east during the continuance of the autumnal fishery, in which they find, for the time being, their sole refuge from destitution. It is estimated that from 7000 to 10,000 Highland women of the poorest class, and otherwise most forlorn condition, are likewise beneficially employed in gutting and packing herrings.
Great improvement and increased activity have been manifested in the fisheries of late years, and the facilities afforded by steam-navigation and the formation of railways have no doubt given a decided impulse to that department, as to so many other branches of commercial occupation. The value of our _materials_ alone, in the way of boats, netting, and lines, now amounts to upwards of £580,000, minutely portioned out as the property, we need scarcely say in many cases the sole property, of a very poor though industrious part of the population.[20] There are nearly 11,000 boats employed in the Scotch fisheries (including a few hundred from the Isle of Man), giving permanent employment to about 40,000 fishermen, besides occupying, as coopers, gutters, and labourers, towards 30,000 other persons. Of the higher class of merchants or fish-curers, there are considerably above 1100 engaged in the trade.[21]
In estimating the money-value of the products of the Scotch fisheries, each barrel of cured herrings may be regarded as equivalent to £1, 1s. The price is sometimes higher, as in 1854, when it often reached to £1, 4s.; but it is also occasionally lower, when there is a large stock in hand, and the foreign markets are sluggish. The fishing trade is more than most others liable to fluctuations,—the supply itself varying from glut to scarcity. Thus the average profits are probably very moderate to all concerned. But taking the sum first mentioned as a fair price, it has been ascertained, that, upon the most moderate computation, the herring fishery of 1855 will produce—
Of cured herrings, £700,000 Of fresh herrings, 150,000 ———————— £850,000
The price, however, of cured fish being actually up, and as the returns of fresh fish are always much below the mark, we are informed, on the best authority, that the real value of the preceding season’s capture will exceed _one million_ sterling. This is a great thing for so poor a country, and especially for the poorer classes of that country. That our wealthier neighbours over the Border are made large partakers in our scaly spoils, is obvious from what appears to us to be a remarkable though distinctly ascertained fact, that in the course of a few weeks of last season, _5053 tons of fresh herrings_ were transmitted, chiefly southwards, from the Dunbar district, by the North British Railway alone. The _take_ of herrings in 1849, for Scotland and the Isle of Man, was 942,617 barrels. The season of 1853 was also very productive, yielding, exclusive of the English stations, 908,800 barrels.
Of the cured fish a very considerable portion is exported to Ireland and the Continental kingdoms. Thus during the immediately preceding season (fishing of 1855), it is estimated that out of a total cure of 705,109 barrels, 100,000 barrels were sent to Ireland, and 338,360 barrels to the Continent. To Stettin alone we have this year exported close upon 155,000 barrels, almost all guaranteed as in prime condition, and skilfully cured, by means of the Fishery crown brand impressed by burning on the staves. This process of branding is regarded as of great importance by the foreign merchants, more especially by such as have afterwards occasion to consign their stock to others for inland transportation. The crown brand is our Government official mark, and testifies that the contents have been carefully examined and approved of by the appointed Fishery officer of the district where the fish were caught and cured; and so great is the confidence now placed in the skill and integrity of these experienced and faithful functionaries, that barrels so marked pass from hand to hand, without examination, into the very heart of Europe, and onwards to the shores of the Black Sea. We need scarcely say how deteriorated the contents would be if the barrels were opened and the fish inspected, as they passed from country to country, or from one purchaser to another. By the present practice this loss is avoided, and great advantage gained.
A single sentence may suffice for cod and ling. Stornoway in Lewis, and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, are the chief stations for these fine fish. In 1854 the amount cured at these and the other places in the north was 115,850 _hundredweight_. Besides these, there were caught and disposed of _fresh_, 58,042 hundredweight. The quantity of individual fish of the cod and ling kind, killed in the north of Scotland during the season of 1854, was _three million five hundred and twenty-three thousand two hundred and sixty-nine_. Of these, 1,385,699 were caught off the Shetland Islands. What a boon to a people who can scarcely grow grain, and cannot live on grass!
The preceding facts seem, on the whole, to indicate a rather pleasant and prosperous condition of affairs, for which we ought to be unfeignedly thankful, and with which it might not be deemed advisable to intermeddle, at least in the way of sudden and unsought-for change.
Our fishery affairs, we may now observe, are at present managed, so far as legal rules and regulations are concerned, by a certain number of Commissioners, who constitute the “Board of Fisheries.”[22] The functions of that Board are chiefly as follows: To obtain for Parliament accurate statistical returns of the cod and herring fisheries,—of the seafaring and other persons employed in those occupations,—of the number, computed tonnage, value, &c., of the boats and other vessels engaged, and to give clearances for the same. In the herring fishery, to see that the measures for the delivery of fresh herrings, as between purchaser and seller, are of the legal standard size; and when the fish are cured, to ascertain that the barrels in which they are packed are of the full dimensions, and not fraudulently made, and to apply the official mark, called the Crown Brand, to whatever barrels contain herrings so cured and packed, and of such superior quality as to entitle them to receive it; to enforce the fishery convention between Great Britain and foreign countries, and guard the coast of Scotland against the intrusion of foreigners during the fishing season; to act likewise as a home police among the multitudinous masses of fishermen and other natives collected for the herring fishery along the coast, or in the numerous narrow firths and sea-lochs of our country, where there is often scarcely room to hold them; and to see that the boats in all such cases take up their proper stations, so as to prevent fouling of gear, and unseemly, sometimes dangerous, brawls; finally, to erect piers and quays, and to make and maintain harbours on the coasts with aid from the proprietors and fishermen, with whom the Commissioners are in frequent communication, and to protect the boats and property in those harbours.
Of course these important and multifarious duties cannot be performed but at some expense; yet when we consider the deep interests involved, the vast capital embarked, the steady and increasing occupation of a remunerative kind afforded to so great a mass of our poorer population, and the difficulties and dangers which naturally beset this adventurous calling, we think the sum is very small compared with the advantages which its expenditure insures. The police department, especially on the western shores and islands, is chiefly maintained by the Princess Royal cutter, of about 103 tons burden, and a crew of 20 men and boys, including an experienced commander, and mate. This vessel is under the exclusive control of the Board. During the height of the fishing season, one or more small steam-vessels are placed by the Admiralty under the direction of the Board, and one of these vessels is usually continued in the Firth of Forth, for the protection of the winter fishing, so frequent there. The entire coast is divided into districts amounting, with the Orkney and Shetland Islands, to 22 in number, managed by a general Inspector, and 25 resident officers, whose sole occupation consists in the direction and encouragement of whatever may tend to the improvement and increase of the fisheries, and their products. It is imperative that these men should themselves have served for three years in the practical performance of the cooper’s art. They are selected on account of their probity, sobriety, assiduity, and intelligence, and they are not raised to be the responsible officers of a district till they have acquired the requisite knowledge, and given proof of their capability, as assistants and nominees, for the higher situations. They reside among, and habitually mingle with the people of the fishing stations, and keep up a friendly and uninterrupted intercourse with them. That they skilfully and faithfully fulfil their functions, may be inferred from the very few instances in which, during a long continuous course of years, and almost countless series of transactions, any complaint of defective cure in any barrel bearing the brand has ever been presented to the Board.
The mere bestowal of the brand is, however, by no means the sole, though it is the final act of those officials. They are on the alert wherever fish are landed from the exhaustless deep. They encourage and hasten the immediate application of the most approved modes of handling, assorting, gutting, rousing, salting, re-pickling, packing, filling up after sinking, and so on, and are thus actively engaged among all the various classes of people, whether of the sea or shore, explaining what is right, and checking what is wrong, from the first moment that the fish are landed from the boats, like glittering and gorgeous heaps of silver, till the full barrels are finally fixed down, and the brand applied. They also ascertain that the measures used as between the fishermen and the curers, and between the curers and the public, are properly constructed, and of just dimensions. To do this effectively, in a station such as that of Wick, where many hundred large boats are discharging their almost living freight nearly at the same time, it is obvious that energy, activity, and considerable sharp-sightedness, are indispensable to see that all is open and above board among such an innumerable and multifarious crew from all quarters,—counting among them, no doubt, as in all other trades, those who are not so scrupulous as to debar their being somewhat greedy of gain. We have been told, from the highest source, of how many evils that fatal though frequent passion is the root.
The expenses of the Board, as above constituted, are the following. There is a special grant of £3000 (by Act of Parliament) for the erection of piers and quays, or other harbour-work. There is a further sum granted, by the annual votes of supply, of £11,000 for the general expenses of the Board, their head office in Edinburgh, their establishment of district officers throughout the country, the general superintendence of the fisheries, and the maintenance of the cutter and her crew. The Commissioners of the Board act gratuitously. We presume that the functionaries last alluded to, although unpaid, assiduously perform the duties required of them, and to which they are pledged. The following is Mr John Shaw Lefevre’s testimony in their favour, as well as in advocation of the continuance both of the brand and Board:—
“Having arrived at the conviction of the necessity of maintaining at present the system of branding herrings, it appears to me that this would of itself require the continuance of the Fishery Board, independently of the question of the general utility of that establishment. I conceive that the superintendence of that system, and of the officers conducting it, could not be better or more satisfactorily executed than by that Board, which is thoroughly conversant with the subject, as respects the Scotch fisheries, to which the branding system is practically limited, and far more conveniently situated than any Central Board in London.
“Having had the opportunity of inspecting the correspondence and proceedings of this Board, it would be unjust not to take this opportunity of adverting to the important services which the Commissioners, acting themselves gratuitously, and with a moderate establishment, have rendered to the public in assisting for a long period of years in the development of this branch of national industry, and of expressing my belief, that, in the present condition of the poorer classes in Scotland, the question of the continuance of the Board of Fisheries is not merely to be regarded in reference to measures of economy,—that it is impossible to doubt the social and moral advantages which may and do result to this class of the population, from the attention bestowed upon their welfare by a body of eminent persons, distinguished by their rank, position, and knowledge, and who are constantly endeavouring to obtain and disseminate information useful to those employed in the fisheries, to encourage their enterprise, to stimulate their industry, and to promote their physical and moral welfare.”
We quite agree with Mr Lefevre in the opinion expressed above, and especially in his belief that a Scotch Board, necessarily conversant with the subject of the Scotch fisheries, will exercise a more effective and satisfactory superintendence, and perform its functions much more conveniently and economically, than could any board in London, so far removed from the scene of action.
The general importance of our present subject is too obvious and admitted to be argumentatively insisted on. If we have writ our annals true, it cannot be doubted that the British fisheries, as the great nursery for seamen of habitual hardihood, and fearless of “the lightning, the fierce winds, the trampling waves,” are altogether invaluable, and, in a national point of view, far transcend the mere direct pecuniary advantages, however great, which may so easily be shown to spring from them. It is long since Sir Henry Wotton maintained that there was something even in the capture of fish, viewed simply as a trade, which tended to improve the moral, if not the intellectual character of men, and to bring them up for the most part a humane as well as hardy race; and more recently, Baron Cuvier, so well acquainted with both man and beast, and every other thing that dwells on this terraqueous globe, has recorded his opinion, that all nations possessed of any sea-coast where the herring occurs, have given great encouragement to its capture, wisely regarding that occupation as the most natural nursery for the bringing up of robust men, intrepid sailors, and skilful navigators, and so of the highest importance in the establishment of maritime greatness. Lacepede goes so far as to regard the herring as “une de ces productions dont l’emploi décide de la destinée des empires.” We know that during the palmiest days of the States-General, out of a population of 2,400,000 persons, 450,000 were either fishermen, or connected with the building and equipment of ships and boats pertaining to the fisheries; and so the Pensionary De Witt was not far wrong when he stated that every fifth man in Holland earned his subsistence by the sea, and that the herring fishery might be regarded as the right hand of the republic. Indeed, the Dutch nation, so wary, considerate, and persevering, have always admitted that their wealth and strength resulted from the sea; and hence the old saying still in use among them, that the “foundation of Amsterdam was laid on herring-bones.”
Seeing, then, that we are surrounded by so great a mass of witnesses, testifying to the importance of this trade, and knowing to what height, after so many years of toil and trouble, we have now attained, ought we to put in peril our present most advantageous position, by venturing upon any fanciful alteration of that familiar machinery which has hitherto worked so well?
It is, however, rumoured that Government proposes, we presume by way of mending these matters, to abolish the Board of Fisheries, collect the statistics, and exercise the superintendence, after some other fashion, cast the brand into oblivion, withdraw the grant for the building of piers and quays, and so dispense, _in toto_, with the advice, assistance, or intervention of the old and experienced authorities. This proposal, of course, proceeds upon the assumption that the brand may now be advantageously done away with, and the principle adopted which has so long been applied to the linen and woollen manufactures, which are not now stamped officially, but depend for preference on the character and merits of each particular maker. We understand it to be alleged, that this so-called sounder system should be applied to the Scotch fisheries, with a view to assimilate them, so far, to those of Ireland. We shall now consider this proposal, which, we need scarcely say, has sorely perplexed and alarmed the people of our coasts. They almost feel as if the fate foretold by the Prophet Isaiah was now in store for them, and that the time is at hand, when “the fishers also shall mourn, ... and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.”—Isa. xix. 8.
We shall now, as briefly as we can, take up the subject under the different heads into which it naturally divides itself.
In the first place, we can bear testimony, from personal knowledge, to the fact, that great importance is attached by our fishing population to the existence of the Board. They view it as a body to whom they can have easy access, through the resident Fishery officers at the various stations. Their impression is that their interests are cared for by it, and hence their willingness, in cases of difference or dispute, to be regulated by the friendly interposition of the official superintendents. Innumerable cases might be cited of aid afforded by the captain and crew of the Princess Royal fishery cutter, as well as by the effective influence and authority of the naval superintendent, with his Queen’s ship. But the great advantage of the former vessel is, that she is under the entire control of the Board for the whole year, whereas the war-steamer is only given for a time, and is of course always under Admiralty orders. There is also additional benefit found to flow to the Highland population of our insular and other western shores, from the easy intercourse they can have with the Gaelic-speaking boats’ crew of the cutter, compared with the utter and irremediable absence of all intelligible intercourse, which not unfrequently occurs, between that population and the unalloyed Saxons of a steamship from the south.
We doubt not that the Board of Fisheries believes itself, and on good ground, to be, from the very nature of its constitution, in a more favourable position than any other body of men can be, to ascertain and judge of the local requirements of parties applying for additional accommodation in the way of piers and quays. Their accurate statistical returns enable them to know whether a given station is on the increase or otherwise, and their local officers having necessarily an intimate acquaintance with the character of the fishing population of each district, can testify to their activity and success. They can thus give information which it would be extremely difficult to obtain in any other way, but without which the propriety of erecting, or repairing and extending, any of these shore-works, could not be so satisfactorily determined.
In respect to the proposal to assimilate the Scotch to the _Irish_ fisheries, we believe the fact to be, that the Irish _Herring_ Fishery has actually no existence as a national undertaking. Let any one read over the _Reports_ of the Irish Commissioners, and he will perceive at once that their functions are confined almost exclusively to the regulation and improvement of the _Inland Fisheries_; that is, those of salmon and white trout. Any mention of herrings is, in truth, of the most casual and unimportant kind. There is, no doubt, a somewhat regular herring fishery off a portion of the eastern coast of Ireland, the boats sailing, for the time being, to and from the harbour of Howth. But it is very well known to every person in any way conversant with the subject, that these boats consist of about 140 from St Ives, in Cornwall, of towards 100 from the Isle of Man, and of some 20 from Campbeltown in the west of Scotland. Scarcely any native Irish boats frequent that fishery. We believe that a few come off from Arklow,—we presume very few, as they are not enumerated by the Irish Commissioners. These Commissioners, however, state, that of all the boats above mentioned, the Scotch “are invariably the most successful,” owing to the superior nature of their nets, and no doubt more skilful mode of management. So backward, in truth, is the condition of the Irish herring fishery, and those connected with it, compared with the Scotch and its conductors, that a very few seasons ago a set of cooper’s tools for the manufacture of barrels could not be found at any curing-station in all Ireland, and there had to be sent over from Scotland, at the request of Mr Ffennel, one of the Irish Inspecting Commissioners, a few skilled artisans, with the necessary implements, to instruct the establishments of the sister isle, and aid those concerned in their pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. Now, we should certainly be very sorry to be assimilated to anything of that kind, although we can easily conceive that the assimilation of the Irish fisheries to those of Scotland would be of great advantage to the former.