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
About this time several works were published giving details as to the
cost and equipment of herring-busses,[301] but little was accomplished.
The net result in 1614 was that one Richard Godsdue, Esquire, of
Bucknam Ferry, in Norfolk, had five busses on the stocks at Yarmouth,
and Sir William Harvey had built a large one at Limehouse. But all the
efforts made in the reign of James, and indeed throughout the whole
century, to form a great national fishery on the model of the Dutch
completely failed. It required nearly two centuries of experience, and
the squandering of vast sums of money, to teach the people that a great
industry could not be suddenly created in this way by servile imitation
of a system not suited to the natural circumstances of the case. It was
chiefly by the gradual evolution of the Scottish herring-boat, and not
by the building of busses, that the herring industry was wrested from
the Dutch.
James was doubtless privy to the queen’s petition before it was
officially considered,[302] and he appears not to have been satisfied
with the decision of the Council. At all events, the question of the
fisheries was still kept alive. In the spring of 1614 we find Wotton
writing from The Hague to Secretary Winwood, saying that he still had
his Majesty’s commission regarding the fishings, and that it was, as
Winwood said, “a tender and dainty piece,” adding that though he had
seen Mr Barnevelt on several occasions he had not mentioned the matter
to him, and was waiting for a suitable time to speak of this “dainty
and delicate business.”[303] Later in the year, the Keeper of the State
Papers was requested by the Lord Chancellor and the Archbishop of
Canterbury to search the records in his custody relating to the king’s
jurisdiction on the sea and his right to the fishing. “Whereas,” they
said, “there is occasion for his Majesty’s special service to look out
such precedents and records as concern his Majesty’s power, right, and
sovereign jurisdiction of the seas and fishing upon the coast; and
that we are informed there are many of that kind among the records in
your custody, we do hereby require you to make your personal repair
hither to seek out all such precedents and papers as are remaining
there and do any way concern that business,” and to hold them ready for
inspection.[304]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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