The herring fishery requires rather a small boat, as the latter should not pull too hard on the nets. Winter fishing requires, on the other hand, a strong fast boat, as it has to be on duty in all weathers. Hence it follows that, in order to combine both, a new type of boat, able to satisfy these discordant conditions, has become a necessity and the old types in use are doomed, naturally, to disappear. The faster the boat, the greater the number of trips and the fresher the fish brought back. Countries which are rich in fish can be visited with fast vessels and it is not to be wondered at that steamboats should be put into use in our country, just as in England, after the “loggers” (luggers), “Kotters” (cutters) and “sloepen” (sloops) which had preceded them. The first steam fishing craft appeared in 1897, and since then the number of these vessels has steadily increased. The English fishing fleet has now not less than 1600 steamboats for deep sea fishing. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ |Composition of the Dutch fishing Fleet, exclusive of the Bommen,| | from 1867 to 1905. | +-----+-------+------+-----+-----+-------+-----+-----------------+ | | | | | |LOGGER | | | | | | | | |CUTTERS| | | |YEARS|HOWKERS|SLOOPS|STEAM|MOTOR| AND |TOTAL| REMARKS | | | | |BOATS|BOATS|LOGGER-| | | | | | | | |BOMMEN | | | +-----+-------+------+-----+-----+-------+-----+-----------------+ | | /----v----\ | | | | | | |1867 | 85 | - | - | 4 | 89 |The first French | |1868 | 80 | - | - | 11 | 91 |lugger was put | |1869 | 79 | - | - | 28 | 107 |into service in | |1870 | 69 | - | - | 51 | 120 |1867. | | | \----Λ----/ | | | | | | |1871 | 45 | 13 | - | - | 64 | 122 | | |1872 | 30 | 14 | - | - | 64 | 108 | | |1873 | 23 | 11 | - | - | 68 | 102 | | |1874 | 20 | 11 | - | - | 83 | 114 | | |1875 | 14 | 11 | - | - | 90 | 115 | | |1876 | 6 | 11 | - | - | 92 | 109 | | |1877 | 8 | 11 | - | - | 94 | 113 | | |1878 | 7 | 11 | - | - | 109 | 127 | | |1879 | 4 | 10 | - | - | 114 | 128 | | |1880 | 3 | 9 | - | - | 121 | 133 | | |1881 | 2 | 9 | - | - | 127 | 138 | | |1882 | 2 | 8 | - | - | 135 | 145 | | |1883 | 2 | 8 | - | - | 144 | 154 | |