The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-24 00:00:00

THE HERRING FISHEItY FOR 1839

The following remarks on the last report of the proceedings
of the Herring Fishery, laid before parliament in June last,
are from the Dumfries Herald. We are happy to learn from
it that the fishing on our shores is every year increasing in
the quantity caught, cured, and exported. From a comparison
of this report with the preceding one it appears that the quan-
tity cured during the year ending April, 1839,-was 555,5591
barrels, while the barrels cured the preceding year were only
507,7741. Notwithstanding the great decrease in the quan-
tity exported to the West Indies, since the emancipation of
the negro population, the total quantity exported is also still
gradually increasing. The total number of barrels exported
during the year, embraced by the last report, is 239,730. Of
these, Ireland has taken 150,000 barrels ; other places in Eu-
rope, 64,780 barrels ; and places out of Europe, 24.943 bar-
rels. The remainder of the barrels cured have, of coures,
bee consumed at home. The growing prosperity of this great
national fishery will be best understood, however, from the
fact that in 1810, when the Board was instituted, the total
number of barrels cured was only about 90,000; whereas the
number now cured, as already seen, is 555,559. This is one
way of estimating the value of our herring fishery. As a
nursery for seamen it has a still higher value. At present it
employs 50,000 fishermen, men and boys, and 11,357 boats ;
to say nothing of the crews of the various vessels which
carry salt, &c. to the fishing stations ; and take our herrings
thence to all the ports in Great Britain, and to the Irish
and foreign ports to which we send them. The number of
persons directly engaged in this navigation, cannot be under
20,000 effective seamen. From this nursery, we know that
many of the best of our sailors, during the time of the war,
were drawn. And no wonder ; for so difficult and dangerous
is the coasting trade of the British seas, that we have heard
experienced nautical men say that a boy who has made six or
seven voyages round the Highlands and Islands of Scotland,
and especially through the Pentland Frith, must know his
profession as well as the young man who has made the like
number of voyages round Cape Horn. Another point must
not be forgotten in estimating the value of our herring
fishery ; we allude to the great number of vessels it employs,
many of them belonging to the ports in the three counties of
our own district. To these vessels the Herring Fishery gives
the great staple of their trade from the beginning of June to
the end of October. At present there cannot be under fifty
sail of these vessels of ours carrying salt from Liverpool to
the various fishing stations on the East Coast of Scotland,
preparatory to the commencement of the catching season.
What makes the thing better for them is, that while some of
them bring return cargoes of timber from Inverness-shire for
railway purposes in England and Wales, others have taken in
cargoes, on the spot, of the celebrated Caithness flags, for
various ports in Scotland, England, and Ireland. After their
next cargo of salt shall have been discharged, the catching
will be going on, and all of them will be loaded with herrings
in return.