The record-union., 1891-03-15


to the continental market. ALI the her.
ring taken along the aast of England
coast are marketed at Yarmouth, and are
either shipped fresh, in carload lots, to
the London fishmongers, or are trans
formed by sailing and smoking into
yarmouth bloaters," for shipment to all
parts of the world in the little pine boxes,
ed grocery-store windows. Every boat
is furnished with about 100 nets, each of
which is q yards long, and about 25 feet
deep. These are fastened in a length TO a
''war-rope" by cords which the men call
seasons" each of which is Is feet in
length. The nets are fioated by corks,
and the "war-ropes" by tubs, or buoys.
The trade affords the principal means of
subsistence to about 5000 fishermen, 5000
braiders, beetsters, towers, rivers, ferry
men, carpenters, caulkers, etc., besides
the number of seamen employed in car
ryfng the fish to foreign markets, and the
commercial class engaged in conducting
the gigantic industry, as well as partial
support to fully 10000 people from the
North Countrie," and near provincial
districts, variously employed at odds and
ends of labor connected with the herring
fishing during the hight of its season.
A night with the Yarmouth herring
fleet is replete with interest and often
with excitement. On more than one oc-
the North Sea in no gentle fashion aboard
these herring smacks, but great storms
during the herring season are rare exeep-
tions. About 4 O'clock in the afternoon
the mass of smacks along the quays be-
gin to swarm with men, and half the city
folk, after an old custom, straggle up and
down the quays to witness the daily de-
parture of the fleet. You will find each
crew particularly busy laying on'' the
nets, that IS, folding them in a great level
pile in the hold. This is a work of the
greatest nicely, so that when the nets are
shot, or cast into the sea, they do not
become entangled. While being ''laid
on," the nets are jointed together by knot
ting the back-ropes of each net. The
buoyss are at the same time attached.
While three men are engaged in this
folding, one attaches the sinks, and an
other is busted folding the back-rope
This done, one by one the fleet, hundreds
upon hundreds of these smacks, drift
gently out of the Yare-mouth, and thence
across the Yarmouth Roads, into the
open sea. AS the twilight falls the old
city sinks from sight into its sand-dunes.
What at first was semi-circle of bright
color from the thousands of pleasure
seekers along the beach, gradually merges
into a line OF rose above another of white;
these blend into a ribbon of purple, and
then the city lights show like faint, far
y
darkening purples of the western sky, the
Yarmouth beacon-light blazing brightly
above, alongside ST. Nicholas grim, square
tower. To the north and south, from the
| eaSt-shore ports, it seems as though a
thousand other sail had met us there, all
floating between the dark waters and the
paler eastern horizon sky like a myriad
sea-fowl resting gently upon vast eX-
panse of sea.
But all these thousand or more smacks
are moving, each gently tacking here and
there for suitable fishing ground. Here
and there sails are being furled, and
masts lowered, denoting that the business
of the night with the great fleet, manned
by, perhaps, S,000men, has already begun.
Soon it comes our turn. Net after net
| flies over the side as we float with the
tide, trailing at least mile behind us,
like majestic sea-Serpent. the corkS and
buoys dancing on the waters farther than
the eye can reach. Then the cook calls
us below to the "den" for supper. A
queer little place it is. One can hardly
stand upright in ii. On either side are
the sleeping lerths for crew of eight.
There is a good American stove, on which
the supper has been cooked, and tiny
table, at which four of us can sit at one
time and eat. And how we do eat! Never
before have ham and eggs, potatoes
fried in fish grease, pretty tough bread
sweet. Then an hour or so on deck, spin
ming yarns, Watching the countless night
lights cleaning from the neighboring
smacks, or tracing the train of smoke and
phosphoreseence behind the great steam
ers passing and repassing as if to run us
down, and all but two or three of the
crew ''turn inv below.
About midnight we who remain on
watch try" the nets. A half dozen or
Pfhore are hauled in. Perhaps not a single
herring Is found. The nets are cast out
again. Then it is drift, drift, drift, until
3 O'Clock in the morning, more than 1000
silent smac'ls in company, trailing 1000
miles ofnets. At this hopr all is commo-
ftion throughout the entire fleet. The
daily drawing of the sea-lottery is at
hand. On each smack's stern is q ma
chine called the Iron Man," worked by
one man, which hauls in the back-rope
over three pulleys, and is equal to about
two and one-half mems strength. The re-
mainder of the crew are hauling in the
middle and foot of the nets, shaking the
wriggling, silvery, squeaking fish from
the meshes into the hold as the nets come
over the gunwale; the 'scummer-boyn
with his 'scummer," like a salmon-land-
ing net, eagerly scooping up every her.
ring which, by mischance, drops back
into the sea, from which service his entire
wages are secured. Ii few fish have been
taken, it is a wearisome task hauling in
more than half miles length of drip
ping nets. Ii three, or four, or half q
dozen lasts" are secured, as is often
done, the men work under the greatest
excitement and good feeling. Finally, as
perhaps the dawn is Just breaking. the
entire fleet is heading towards Yarmouth
before spanking breeze, the light-laden,
unlucky craft out-speeding those deep
sunk with their precious freights, render
ing easy and CHEEKY the onerousness of
tagging behind.
Half thousand crafts may already be
berthed at the quays and discharging
their fish when your own smack arrives
If SO, you will find half hundred thou
sand Yarmouth folk and sight-seers
swelling the motley throngs to greet you.
The herrings are disposed of in jiffy by
auction, carted to the fish-houses, COW
cred with salt for twenty-four hours, and
are then washed in watts by the curers,
called towers" Then they are spitted
through the head upon spits, about four
feet long, by women, glib of tongue and
dext0us OF fingers, locally known as
rivers From their hands they are
conveyed to the huge "smok e-houses.
where they are hung in tiers in narrow
passages from forty to fifty feet high, and
in these the process of smoking goes on
in gentle smudgings, with frequent in
termissions, several weeks. They have
then become the rich, juicy, toothsome
yarmouth bloaters" of commerce. 1t is
among the many legends of old Var
mouth town, and is set dawn as authentic
history by its ancient chronicles, that the
Yarmouth mode of curing herring by
sailing and smoking, which has resulted
in the greatest industry in the preparation
for use of single fish at q single port in
the world, was the result of accident, a
fisherman having hung some herrings up
in his cabin, where, ''what with his fer
ing and smoking, or smokie- fering, in
that his narrow lobby, his herrings,
which were as white as a whalebone when
he hung them up, now lookt as red as a