As far back as the thirteenth century the herring had been caught in great numbers off Great Yarmouth, and in 1270 the Yarmouth herring fair was held for forty days. About that date some Flemish vessels put to sea and killed 1200 English North Sea fishermen, nor will these international fishermen’s quarrels ever cease as long as human nature remains what it is. Before the end of the thirteenth century Grimsby had begun fishing, and before the end of the sixteenth century the first Hull whaler had started out on her special industry, whaling having begun in England only four years previously. Few people are more conservative than the sailor, and of his service the most conservative of all is the fisherman, who did not take to steam generally for many a long year after it had become dominant in the carrying trade. Many of us can still remember the famous “blue” sailing fishing fleet out of Great Yarmouth; and the Brixham fleet and others round our coasts still stick almost exclusively to sail. In the olden days, wool, wheat, fish and other cargoes were sold by the “last.” Wool is no longer thus sold, but a hundred years ago wheat was thus reckoned at Great Yarmouth, and round our coasts to this day fish is still disposed of in the old-time manner, a Yarmouth “last” amounting roughly to 13,200 herrings or about two and a half tons. In our British North Sea fishing craft the busses have given way very largely to steam drifters, but off the Dutch shores the Scheveningen “pink” is much the same craft in hull as were the vessels which caused so much friction in the seventeenth century. The very word by which these craft have been known is in itself symbolical of the antiquity of the industry. The mediæval Venetians had “buzi,” and throughout the Romance and Teutonic languages it has always meant a fishing boat, the seventeenth-century Englishmen getting the use from the Dutch North Sea craft.