SOME ASPECTS OF THE MOTORISATION OF THE SCOTTISH INSHORE FISHING FLEET.

(This is the paper presented by Mr. George Bergius to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Congress in Paris 1953)

Scope of the Subject:
   (a) In this paper I intend to limit myself to dealing broadly with the Scottish Inshore Fishing Fleet, that is to say, to vessels fishing on nearer grounds and normally returning to port each day.

   (b) The main methods of capture of these boats are (i) Seining and lining for demersal fish (i.e. deep swimming fish such as cod, haddock, plaice and sole,) (ii) Drift netting and ring netting for pelagic fish, (i.e. fish living mostly in the upper layers of the sea such as herring, mackerel and sprats).

   (c) Although creel fishing for shell fish (i.e. lobsters and crabs, etc.) is an important branch of the Scottish Inshore Fishing Industry employing many hundreds of the smaller sail and motor boats and producing a catch of over £300,000 annually in value, it is not proposed to deal with this subject here as shell fish are in Great Britain mainly luxury items of food and cannot be classed as a part of the staple diet of the nation.

   (d) Although for the purpose of the paper, we will be concerned mainly with the Scottish Inshore Fishing Fleet, it is helpful to refer from time to time to figures which embrace the whole Scottish fishing fleet, and its catch.

19th Century Fishing Vessels:
   Until about the middle of the 19th Century, all the fishing vessels used on the Scottish coasts, were open boats usually called yawls without any sort of fore-deck or other protection. It was thought that, for example, open boats were absolutely essential for herring fishing. In the main Scottish fishing areas of the East Coast, fishing boats up to 1855 could bo roughly divided into two main classes.

   (i) On the Moray Firth, the boats wore of the "Skaffie" type, with rounded stem and very raked stern. The dimensions of a typical "Sadie" were 41 ft. in length, 13 ft. beam, 4 ft. 9 ins. draft with a displacement of about 3 tons. These boats cost about £60, were clinker built of pitch pine planking and oak frames, rigged with two dipping lug sails and a jib, and carried a crew of five.

   (ii) Round the rest of the East Coast, the type in main use was the "Fifie", with rounded stem and rounded stern, and with a slight rake to the stempost. These boats varied considerably in size. For example, in Aberdeen they were approximately 40 ft. long with a length of keel of 31'6", 12'6" beam, 4'3" draft, and a displacement of between 4 1/2 and 5 tons. Like the "Skaffies" they were clinker built, cost about £65 and carried two lug sails.

   The Peterhead boats were slightly shorter, but carried about a foot more beam. In Fraserburgh and Wick, the boats.were mainly from 34 1/2" ft, to 36 ft, long, but had roughly the same beam as the Peterhead boats.

Need for Larger Boats:
   With the gradually increasing distance from the shore which the herring boats had to go to follow the herring, it became necessary to build larger and more seaworthy craft. This led to the evolution of the "Skaffie" into the docked or half-decked "Zulu", and a gradual increase in length of the "Fifie" to about 60 to 70 ft. keel.

   As far as can be traced, the first partially decked boat was built at Buckio in 1855 and thereafter half-decked and fully decked boats gradually became standard throughout the fleet.

   As the "Fifies" grew in size, the smaller "Fifie" type boats became known as "Baldios", after the famous Italian patriot, Garibaldi.

   The first "Zulu" boat was constructed about 1880 and was a combination of what were then thought to be the best qualities of the "Skaffies" and "Fifies", They were between 60 and 80 ft. overall, had straight stems and very heavily raked stern posts.

   By the end of the 19th Century, the "Fifies" had grown in size to between 60 and 70 ft, overall, with straight stem and sternpost, and therefore having a keel length almost equal to the overall length.

   On the Clyde and West Coast of Scotland, boats wore and still are generally smaller. On the North West Coast they were up to about 50 ft., while on the Clyde a fairly distinctive local type was evolved called the Loch Fyne Skiff. These had in earlier days semi-rounded bows and curved, raked sternposts, later developing into the rounded canoe sterns of today. On the whole, the West Coast boats carried more free-board than the East Coast boats, and were mainly of the "Fifie" type.

Steam Vessels:
   The last 25 years of the 19th Century saw the introduction and steady rise in the number of steam drifters and steam trawlers. By 1900, there were 70 Scottish Steam Drifters in operation and the following years up to 1914 saw a phenomenal rise in the numbers of drifters and liners. By 1914 the peak of nearly 1,000 drifters and liners had been reached, and since then there has been a steady decline until the present -day, when there are less than 50 regularly fishing.

   Steam trawlers first introduced in Scotland, at Aberdeen in 1882, had a much steadier increase in numbers and more gradual fall. Their numbers now are 235 which are much the sane as they were at the beginning of the century. The peak number of Scottish Trawlers in commission was reached in the mid 1930's, when there were nearly 400 in operation, nearly all based on the East Coast and mainly at Aberdeen.

The Scottish Fishing Fleet in 1900:
   At the turn of the centaury, the broad outline of the Scottish Fishing Fleet was as follows:-

    The total size of the fleet was 11,275 vessels of all sizes, of which appropriately 97% were sailing vessels, about 2 1/2% were steam trawlers, and 1/2% were steam drifters and liners.

   Nearly two thirds of the catch consisted of herring, the bulk of the remainder being trawled fish and the rest line caught fish.

    The total tonnage of the fleet was nearly 120,000 tons. The value of boats and gear was recorded as being nearly £2,711,000. The total catch was 5,369,00 cwts. of a value of £2,326,000. Nearly 90,000 persons were employed in the industry, of whom about 35,000 were actual fishermen, the remainder being gutters, curors, packers, coopers, etc.

Need for Mechanical Propulsion:
   During the last years of the 19th Century, the herring fishermen particularly were recognising that some form of mechanical power for the propulsion of their boats was necessary. Increasingly they were concentrating on herring fishing at greater distances off-shore. The area of operation had extended right round the coast from the Southern Irish Sea to the Shetlands and from there to the grounds off Yarmouth and Lowostoft. All these factors plus the increasing competition for markets among the fishermen themselves forced upon them the necessity of becoming more independent of wind as a motive power. .
By 1900, the remarkable success of the steam drifter served to impress the fishermen with the great need for mechanical motive power.

    The steam drifters, being independent of calms and head winds, could reach the herring shoals and return to the market with their catches much more rapidly than sailing boats, and as a result their gross landings were considerably larger, but also they earned higher prices as their fish were in better condition.

   Moreover, competition for markets among the relatively small numbers of steam drifters was then small and little felt, and so the fishermen believed that a new era, of prosperity was opening ,up for them by means of the steam drifter.

   In the first few years, all went well, and by 1904 the Scottish Steam Drifter Fleet had more than doubled, as compared with 1901, By 1904, however, the Fishery Board for Scotland was greatly alarmed at the possible effects of the steam drifter "boom" on the Scottish fishing industry as a whole.

    The Scottish sailing fleet consisted of over 10,000 vessels and nearly a third of these were "first class" boats of the largest size which had cost anything from £600 to £800, The Fishery Board showed great concern at the sale of those vessels for extremely low prices in order to purchase expensive steam drifters, costing approximately £3,000, The Fishery Board felt that poor fishing or low prices, or a serious loss of fishing gear could seriously embarrass these men who had recently purchased steam drifters and who were, therefore, faced with the high operating costs of these vessels.

    In point of fact the poor herring season of 1908 left the herring fishing fleet on the Moray Firth in an unparalleled state of indebtedness, in spite of the fact that the previous few years had been extremely prosperous ones.
In view of these considerations the Scottish Fishery Board directed their attention in 1904 to the possibility of auxiliary motor power which would have the very great advantage of installation in the existing sailing fleet and whose use would not automatically lead to the wholesale scrapping of boats.

    For a number of years the internal combustion engine had been employed with success in Norway, Denmark and Holland, Indeed the first recorded installation of an engine in the Scottish Fishing Fleet, took place in 1901, Unfortunately no details of this or subsequent installations up 1904, have been traced, It is known, however, that in 1902, two large sailing fishing vessels had engines installed. In 1903, another vessel of over 45 ft. keel was fitted with an engine.

Fishery Board for Scotland Enquiry:
   After an exhaustive enquiry the Fishery Board's recommendation in 1904 was that a Danish engine, the "Dan", would be most suitable for installation in existing types of Scottish boats, and that a "Dan" engine should be installed as an experiment. This was done, and an ordinary sailing boat probably between 60 and 70 ft, overall, the "Pioneer", was built for £700, and fitted with a 25 h.p. "Dan" engine for a cost of £446. The "Pioneer" was fitted with a capstan driven by belt from the engine, but this was found unsuitable in operation so a steam capstan and boiler was fitted at the additional cost of £114.

    After trials in which a speed of 5 knots was attained, the "Pioneer" began fishing, and was kept fishing through the seasons of 1905, 1906 and 1907.

    The experiment was not an unqualified success, but this was not the fault of the engine. The crew were prejudiced against the engine from the start because of the vessels low speed, which they compared with the steam drifter's 9 knots. When breakdowns began to occur in the second season, largely due to carelessness and lack of maintenance, the men would hardly use the motor.

    All told, the experiment was not altogether successful in that it did not succeed in immediately convincing the fisherman that a good and cheaper alternative to the purchase of a steam drifter existed. Part of the failure of experiment was undoubtedly due to the fact that drifters wore so much faster, that the phenomenal seasons of 1905 and 1906 with their large catches and high prices, gave the steam drifters large profits in spite of their high capital costs and working expenses. It is probably true to say that the greatest service, performed by the "Pioneer" experiment was to attract the attention of British Engine Manufacturers to the difficulties and at the same time the possibilities involved in the mechanisation of the Scottish Fleet.

Note: An interesting sidelight on the position on the Continent at this time is shown by the fact that in 1907 five West German ports in an area from Nordcnham to Hamburg had 234 fishing vessels in operation, of whom 194 were sailing luggers, 17 were steamers and 32 (or nearly 1/7 (13.7%) ) were auxiliary sailing luggers. Evidently, the German fishermen took to the internal combustion engine much more rapidly than their Scottish colleagues.

First Installations:
   The first engine installation in a Scottish commercial fishing vessel for which some details are available took place in Anstruther in 1905, when a 25 h.p. engine was installed in the cabin of a large 70 ft, fishing vessel. The propeller was two bladed and was reversible as well as feathering. It was mainly used as an auxiliary in calm weather.

    As in the case of the "Pioneer", an engine driven capstan was fitted, but again was not successful in operation largely due to the difficulty of regulating the capstan speed. It was later removed and replaced by a steam capstan and boiler.

     This installation was entirely satisfactory except that the speed of the vessel (5 knots) was thought to be too low by the fishermen.

    Following the Anstruther installation in 1905, another large East Coast sailing vessel was engined in 1906, bringing the total of registered Auxiliary Fishing Vessels to five. In 1907 there were two installations, the first being in a Shetland Herring boat, the other in a Campbeltown vessel, the "Brothers".

    Thereafter the number of engine installations increased rapidly, 11 in 1908, 57 in 1909, 81 in 1910, The table and graph shown below records this remarkable rise in the number of vessels fitted with motors.

Table 1

Graph 1

   By 1909, the Fishery Board for Scotland, were quite evidently of the opinion that (i) the internal combustion engine had come to stay, and (ii) that it was better for the overall welfare of the industry in Scotland that fishermen should invest in auxiliary engines or motor fishing boats rather than steam drifter.

    The Boards report for 1909 gave a full statement of the advantages of the steam drifter as compared with the auxiliary motor boat. The steam drifter had greater speed and flexibility and power, greater weatherliness and ability to fish in bad weather when the auxiliary motor vessel could not, it had slower running machinery and propeller and therefore presumably more easy handling of nets by the steam capstan and economical maintenance. On the other hand the auxiliary motor boat cost only about half the price of a steam drifter, completely fitted out (say £1,400 - £1,500, as compared with £2,800 - £3,000), its speed with an engine of 60 to 75 h.p. was little less. The engine could be worked by one of the crew thus saving the wages of an engineer and stoker (a total of about £4 per week in 1909), the fuel costs were considerably less, particularly when advantage could be taken of favourable winds, while engines of good make with automatic lubrication required less attention than a steam engine. The Board admitted the drawback still being experienced in motor vessels, namely the provision of power for the capstan, but spoke with a restrained optimism about this problem.

    The Board doubted, however, whether the larger annual catches and larger gross earnings of the steam drifter were greater or even as great as the net earnings of the motor vessels, with all working and operational costs deducted.

    The Board then went on rather significantly to offer general advice as to the principles which should underly the fisherman's choice of engine.

Choice of Engines:
   By the end of 1908, as the table shows, there were 18 motor fishing vessels in operation. Details of these vessels are given in Table 2.

   To summaries the position in 1908. 18 boats fitted with engines of 6 different makes. Gardner engines fitted in 8 boats, mostly all of the largest size, 6 Kelvins fitted in smaller West Coast Boats. Thornycrofts, Fairbanks, Clifton & Wear fitted to one boat each.

    By the end of the following year (1909) 75 boats wore fitted with engines of 15 makes, as follows in order of numbers:-

Kelvins 25 boats, Gardners 21 boats, Thornycrofts 6 boats, Fairbanks 6 boats, Swedish Alpha 5 boats, Blackstone 2 boats.

   Parsons, Wear, Renington, Beardmore-Peck, Kormhout, Mitchan, Charde-Bridport, Astor, Truscott, Ferro with one boat each.

   As before,the large East Coast boats used mainly large horse-power Gardners, while the preference of the West Coast smaller boats was for Kelvins.

   This year (1908) saw the first recorded instance of a fishing vessel being built specially for a motor. This was a small boat of 25 ft. built at Rothesay on the Clyde for a cost of £75,0,0d, the motor was a 7l!r h.p. Gardner single cylinder engine which gave the boat a speed of about 7 knots with a Gaines 3 bladed reversible propeller. The boats running costs were estimated at 3d per hour and she gave good service at cod net fishing.

    By 1914, the motor was firmly established in the Scottish Inshore fishing fleet, particularly in the smaller boats of from 18 to 30 ft keel.

    It had not, however, made much progress in the existing fleet of herring sailing boats. The throe most obvious reasons for this were firstly, that no new herring sail boats had been built for several years. Secondly, the problem of satisfactorily coupling the motor to the capstan, for hauling the herring nets, had not boon solved. Thirdly, the relative progress in white fishing and better prospects in this branch of fishing in -which much smaller boats could be used, as compared with the doubtful prospects in the herring industry, served to accelerate the use of the motor in the former, and, if anything, delay it in the latter.

    For the next six years until 1920, the first world war and its aftermath made conditions in the industry generally abnormal. From 1920, the Scottish herring fleet entered a period of great difficulty due mainly to the loss of traditional export markets such as Germany and Russia, and also to the greatly increased costs of operating the boats.

    From 1920 to 1930 the steam drifter fleet remained the same in numbers while the numbers of motor vessels after a set back during the years 1922-25, again began to creep up.

    During the sane period, the introduction of a modified form of Danish seine net fishing made considerable strides, and gave a further impetus to the use and development of the motor boat.

    In 1926, total building for the Scottish fleet was 49 vessels, 8 small sailing craft, and 41 motor vessels, 29 of them from 30 to 45 feet keel: only 3 were of 45 feet keel and over. During this year, there was a notable tendency for new boats for the West Coast to be built larger and more heavily timbered and planked than normal for the area.

    Lighting at this stage was still mainly by acetylene gas, and small wheelhouses were becoming more common.

1926 has been recorded as the first year in which a semi-diesel engine of 36 h.p, was installed in a Scottish fishing vessel, and it is known that in this year there were a number of successful installations of capstans driven by belts off the engine flywheel for hauling the herring seine nets.

Disappearance of Sailing Boats:
   In 1926, sailing boats still predominated in numbers, but they were outclassed in every sense by the motor and steam fleets. The table below shows how rapidly the larger sizes of sailing boat disappeared.

Length of keel	Year 1904	Year 1913	Year 1925	Year 1926
1st Class Boats 45' 0" & over	2,614	1,362	118	91
1st Class Boats 30-45' 0"	970	330	37	37
2nd Class Boats 18-30' 0"	3,092	2,171	742	701
3rd Class Boats Under 18' 0"	3,738	2,944	2,718	2,648
Total	10,414	6,807	3,615	3,477

   By 1930, nearly 1/5 of the total Scottish catch of fish (i.e. over 1,200,000 cwts.) was contributed by motor boats ranging in length from under 18 ft. to over 80 ft,, and employed in all kinds of fishing, including even trawling.

By now it was appreciated that a rival had emerged for the steam drifter, as a large semi-diesel engined motor drifter was showing better results than those of the average steam drifter.

    By 1933, the diesel engine was firmly established and most of the new vessels built in this.year wore fitted with diesels. Almost all these craft wore built for use in white-fishing whose modest prosperity based on a fairly steady home market made a sharp contrast with the prolonged, depression in the herring fishing.

    1934 saw the building of two large motor vessels of about 80 ft. overall length with full diesel engines. Both vessels gave bettor results than the steam drifters of their port.

    Up till the outbreak of war in 1939, there was a notable development in the building of multi-purpose motor boats which could be used for herring fishing or for seine netting for white fish, There was also a great increase in the number of boats which were seine netting practically all the year round, and many of the larger motor boats built for the east Coast during this period wore for seine-netting.

    Since the war ended in 1945, there has been a steady rise in the numbers of the largest class of motor vessels, of 45 keel length, and over. There has been a marked rise in the numbers of the smallest class of boats, under 18 ft. keel length. These Litter have almost doubled in ten years.

Catch:
   Side by side with the progressive decrease in the numbers of sailing fishing boats, the rapid rise and steady fall in the steam drifter fleet and progressive use of engines, was the steady rise in the size of catches of fish landed annually at Scottish ports.    

   During the period from 1900 to 1914, the quantity of the total catch rose from about 5.4- million cwts. to 7,4- million cwts. and from about 2 1/4 million pounds to nearly 3 1/4 million pounds. In less than 9 years from 1906 to 1914 the proportions of, for example, the total catch of herrings caught by sailing vessels fell from nearly 70% to under 20%, while the percentage taken by steam drifters rose in the same period from about 31% to 74%. The percentage of the annual catch landed by motor fishing vessels rose from 4% in 1910 to nearly double, 7% in 1914.

    By 1926, the total landings at Scottish ports equaled approximately 7.4- million cwts. of which herring accounted for over L, million cwts. of nearly if million pounds value of the herring catch, just under 1/3 was caught by motor vessels and 2/3 by steam drifters, the fractional remainder by sailing vessels.

    The catch of 3.3 million cwts. of denersal fish valued at over 3 million pounds was landed mainly by trawlers with a total of 1.7 million cwts. Great line steamers landed about 288,000 cwts, and seine netters, mostly motor vessels landed about 100,000 cwts., while small and hand liners, both motor and sail landed about 322,000 cwts.

    It is of particular interest to observe that the highest average price obtained was received by the seine-netters, with an average of nearly 35/-pcr cwt. in contrast with the average price of about 22/- or 23/- per cwt. for the trawled fish.

    By 1934, total Scottish landings equaled about 5.3 million cwts. of which pelagic fish (mainly herring) accounted for just under half 2.6 million cwts. and demersal fish for the remainder.

    Motor vessels had caught roughly 1 million cwts. of the herring catch and steam drifters about 1 1/2 million cwts. Of the catch of demersal fish of 2.7 million cwts, 2 million cwts. were landed by trawlers, 387,000 cwts, by motor seine netters and liners and the bulk of the remainder by steam liners.

   By 1944, motor vessels wore catching more than half the total herring catch, and by 1952, the motor vessels share of the total herring lands was 78%.

    With regard to denersal fish, at the present tine motor vessels are supplying little less than one third of the total landings. In this case the proportion of the total catch procured by motor vessels, has trebled in 14 years.

   From 1900 until the present day covers the application of the internal combustion engine in the Scottish fishing fleet, and in that period we have seen the motor fleet grow from one auxiliary vessel to 3,650 full-power vessels, 950 of them diesel - a fleet which now contributes 55% of the Scottish catch by weight, and 44% by value Graph 2.

Engine Installation:
   The majority of boats being built today are between 65 and 75 feet, and are fitted with engines between 88 and 150 h.p. Our practice is to supply everything necessary for the engine installation except woodwork and also to supply various accessories such as bilge and wash-down pumps, dynamos and starters with all necessary lights and other electric equipment excluding Echo Sounders, short-wave wireless and direction finding equipment. We also supply if required our own hand-operated steering gear which is designed to suit a wide variety of boats. When planning any engine installation we normally require a plan of the boat or the completion of our questionnaire sheet. The first consideration is the position of the engine and the engine bearers which should be of oak, or similar hard wood. In the case of "Kelvin" engines the bearers are of the athwart ship type which give better access to the engine than the more common fore-and-aft bearers and also withstand bettor engine vibration which is athwart ship and not fore-and-aft. The main disadvantage of fore-and-aft bearers apart from engine vibration is that they require to be checked to cross the boats frames thereby considerably weakening the bearers. "Kelvin" engine bearers are simple to install and if properly fitted to the skin of the boat require only three bolts to secure them, one naval brass wood stud down through the centre into the keelson and two copper flat headed bolts through the skin near the outer ends of the bearers. All bolts have hexagon nuts on the inside and can be tightened when necessary without any trouble. We have found this method of fixing completely satisfactory and it long outlives the iron dump bolt and screw nail type of fixing.

    The "Kelvin" stern tube is of naval brass fitted with a rubber cutless bush on the outside and a stuffing box with tallowed packing inside, no grease is necessary nor advisable. The cutless bush is automatically water lubricated through open-ended pipes cut at an angle to collect the sea water as the boat moves through the water. The stern tube is easy to install and is usually made to measure before leaving the factory. The propeller and propeller shaft are of manganese bronze and again the propeller shaft is usually cut to suit the installation.

    The sea cock for sea-water cooled engines is fitted convenient to the engine water pump and is simple in design containing a monel gauge strainer. The sea cock to water pump pipe which is of copper is supplied either bent to shape from a template supplied by the boat builder,or in a softened condition for easy bending.

    For enclosed circuit engines we employ outside monel cooler pipes fitted in the reverse curve of the hull, those coolers can be made to special lengths to suit the spacing of the boats frames. We have no record of any cooler pipe having been replaced on account of damage from outside even though many harbours dry-out at low tide. We have used this type of cooler for almost ten years now in preference to the inside heat exchanger which requires an additional water pump and thereby reducing the final power available for driving the propeller.

   The exhaust on sea water cooled engines which combines with the cooling water before being discharged is on our diesel engines carried through the boats side in a rubber exhaust pipe. The pipe should have a gradual fall to the outboard end and therefore in many cases it is necessary to mount the silencer (or mixing chamber) on a standpipe direct from the engine, various standard lengths of standpipe are manufactured and can be supplied to suit the vessel's requirements. On enclosed circuit cooled engines the exhaust is passed through a dry silencer mounted inside a funnel on the deck.

    Fuel tanks, which have increased in size because of bigger engines and the longer distances covered, are now normally built to suit the shape of the hull and are fitted in the engine room on each side of the engine. Many boats nowadays carry up to 2,000 gallons-of fuel, sufficient for approximately 350 to 4,00 hours.

    The engine is controlled direct from the wheelhouse by the steersman, all remote control parts such as shafts, rods, chains, etc., being supplied to suit the boat, and out to length before despatch from the factory.

   A special power take-off for driving the fishing winch is provided at the fore-end of the engine this also is controlled from wheelhouse and can be supplied to suit a seine net winch fitted forward of the hold and driven through a shaft running forward under the hold floor, or the ring-net winch fitted at the aft end of the hold and driven by a belt from the flywheel pulley.

    Many boats are now fitting separate 24 volt electric generating sets of approximately 700 to 960 watts capacity driven by small diesel engines, but it is still common to drive dynamos up to 500 watts from the main engine. The only other auxiliary normally driven by the main engine is a bilge wash down pump which is of adequate capacity to give a strong jet to remove fish scales and dead fish.

    The normal standard engine equipment includes everything, even to the smallest screw nail, necessary for the engine's installation which can be carried out by a carpenter with his ordinary tools.

Conclusion:
  The Scottish Inshore Fishing Fleet is today probably one of the most modern and most efficient in the world. It has had its ups and downs, and will go on having them. The knowledge gained by the Industry as a whole has been learnt the hard way. Foreign fleets about to become mechanised and in the process of mechanisation would do well to study the evolution of the Scottish Industry.

    The main lesson to be learned from the story of the Scottish Fishing Industry is that a start should bo made in a modest way and every endeavor made to encourage the fishermen to build up slowly and surely, and so retain his independence. The main aim should be to help the fisherman to help himself. Largo and expensive vessels are all very well in prosperous times, but during hard times it is the smaller boats that usually manage to keep going because of their low overheads. When fish are scarce the smaller boat has at least an equally good chance of obtaining a modest catch as compared with the larger boat. This means of course, that the smaller boat has often a far better chance of meeting expenses than the large boat.

    This is perhaps the most important lesson we have learned in the last 50 years of Scottish fishing.

    Scotland's fishing industry, is of the very greatest importance to her economy. It contributes large quantities of food for her people, and provides large supplies of fish for the feeding of the very much larger population of England, As an occupation, fishing is relatively much more important to Scotland, than it is to England. This is shown by the fact that in 1939, Scotland's fishing industry gave employment to 7 times as many people in proportion to population as compared with England's fishing industry.

    Although greatly reduced in numbers compared with 1900, the fishing industry of Scotland employs 14,000 fishermen, and 24,000 persons in auxiliary occupations connected with the industry.

Bibliography:

Fishery Board for Scotland Annual Reports 1883 to 1939 & Statistical Tables. Reports on the Fisheries of Scotland (Scottish Home Dept.) 1939 to 1952.

Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistical Tables 1939-1952.

Boats and Boatmen by T. C. Lethbridge (1952).

Fishing Boats & Fisher Folk on the East Coast of Scotland by P.F. Anson (l930).

Reports by the Committee on the White Fishing and Shell Fishing Industry, (Scottish Council) 194-5 & 1946.

The Highlands & Islands of Scotland - a Scottish Economic Committee Publication - 1938.

Report on the Aberdeen Trawler Fishing Industry (Scottish Council) 1951.

Appendix 1 -- A 70 foot MFV

Appendix 2 -- A Modern Ring Net Fishing Boat, 53 feet OA