The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial WatersFulton, Thomas Wemyss
History
The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters
Fulton, Thomas Wemyss
Fisheries -- Great Britain; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History; Sea-power; Territorial waters -- Great Britain -- History
From this time much attention was given by English writers to the
Dutch fisheries, and on the whole they exaggerated their extent and
the number of boats and vessels engaged in them. One of them, John
Keymer, who was afterwards much quoted, professedly based his account
upon his personal observations in the Netherlands about the year 1601.
His statement appears to have been submitted to King James in 1605 or
1606, but it was not published until 1664. He said that the fishing
fleet of the Hollanders numbered more than 4100 vessels, of which 100
were dogger-boats, 700 pinks and well-boats, 700 “strand-boats,” 400
“euers,” and 400 “galliotts, drivers, and tod-boats,” and 1200 busses,
afterwards increased to 2000. The pinks and well-boats, each from 60 to
100 tons burden, fished on the coasts of England and Scotland for cod
and ling, while the busses, ranging from 60 to 200 tons burden, pursued
the herring fishery along our east coast. There were also, according
to this author, 400 Dutch vessels, called “Gaynes” and “Euers,” which
fished for herrings off Yarmouth; 1000 vessels, of from 50 to 100 tons,
that caught cod and ling in his Majesty’s seas; as well as 600 ships
engaged in carrying cod and ling to London. Keymer also says that
he had seen near 3000 sail of English, Scotch, French, Hollanders,
Embdeners, Breemeners, and Hamburgers fishing _at one time_ upon the
coast of Scotland, Shetland, Orkney, Gattney (Caithness?), North
Farrel, and Fowl (Fair) Isle, and divers other places.[242] In a later
treatise which Keymer wrote in 1620 and submitted to King James, it
is also said that the Hollanders employed about 3000 ships and 50,000
people in fishing on the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
This tract has usually been attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh and is
published among his works, and it obtained celebrity in consequence,
both in this country and on the Continent, but it was without doubt
written by Keymer.[243] A more moderate statement was made by another
writer, Tobias Gentleman, who published the best work on the subject,
in 1614, and was evidently well versed in the fisheries both of Holland
and England. He states that 1000 sail of Hollanders came every year
to fish for herrings in “his Majesty’s streams”; that more than 600 of
them were “great busses,” some of 120 tons, most of about 100 tons;
that the crews numbered from 16 to 24 men, so that there could not be
less than 20,000 mariners altogether. In addition to the great fleet
of busses, the Hollanders had “a huge number” of smaller vessels of
from 20 to 50 tons burden, with crews of from 8 to 12 men, which were
called “sword-pinks,” “flat-bottoms,” “Holland-toads,” “Crabskuits,”
and “Yeuars,” and fished for herrings along with the busses on the
east coast from Shetland southwards, carrying home their catches or
selling them at Yarmouth. Gentleman says there had been seen at one
time, “and numbered,” at Brassey Sound, in Shetland, where the busses
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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