HOW FISHERS FISHED
The poor mackerel season ended in the second week of July. Why, when
mackerel were so scarce, the _Meum and Tuum_ did not give up the fishing
and try for "midsummer herring" it is difficult to understand, and Posh
does not remember the reason, if there was one. Possibly the change of
nets, etc., etc., was too much trouble. Anyhow, the season was
unprofitable for the mackerel boats. On Monday, July 13th, FitzGerald
was still on the _Scandal_ at Lowestoft, and wrote from there to Mr.
Spalding (_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 113): "Posh made up and paid off on
Saturday. I have not yet asked him, but I suppose he has just paid his
way, I mean so far as Grub goes. . . . Last night it lightened to the
South, as we sat in the Suffolk Gardens--I, and Posh, and Mrs. Posh. . . ."
The "making up" may require some little explanation. The "drift"
fishing--i.e. the herring and mackerel fishing (for though sprats and
pilchards are caught by drift nets, it is unnecessary to consider them
when dealing with the great North Sea drift fishing)--is carried on on a
system of sharing profits between owners and fishermen. Trawlers, i.e.
craft that fish with a "trawl" net for flat fish, haddocks, etc., etc.,
are managed differently.
"Making up" is the technical term for balancing profit and loss of a
season, and ascertaining the sums which are due to owners and crew
respectively.
In the days when Fitzgerald was a "herring merchant," the systems of
Yarmouth and Lowestoft were different. At Yarmouth the owner of the boat
took nine shares out of sixteen, and bore all losses of damaged or lost
nets, etc., the remaining seven shares being divided among the crew in
varying proportions. For instance, the skipper took 1.75 or two shares,
the mate 1.25 or 1.5, and so on down to the boy with his one-half or
three-eighths share. At Lowestoft the shares were also divided into
sixteen; but the owner took only eight, and the crew the other eight. The
losses of gear, nets, etc., however, were borne equally between the two
lots of eight shares, and, on the whole, I believe the Yarmouth system
was more favourable to the men, though the Lowestoft system made the
skipper and crew more careful of the nets and gear than they might have
been did not they suffer for any loss of them. The introduction of steam
drifters has made the shares complicated in the extreme. The owners take
so much as owners of the boat, so much for the engines, etc., etc., and,
in fact, the owners get the share of a very greedy lion. However, the
prices rule so high nowadays, and the catches are occasionally so large
(the other day a steam drifter brought in over 200 pounds worth of fish
to Grimsby as the result of one night's fishing), that the great
Martinmas fishing of the east coast has become a gamble in which fortunes
may be made and lost. Many a boat earns over 2000 pounds from October to
December. A lucky skipper may take 200 pounds for his share of the home
fishing alone. But such figures would have sounded fantastic in
FitzGerald's day, for I have been assured over and over again by herring
fishers that in the sixties and seventies, ay, even in the eighties of
last century, 20 pounds was a "good season's share" for a prominent hand
of a successful drifter.
Posh, as half owner, would take four-sixteenth shares, and as skipper
would probably take another two-sixteenths, so that he would draw more
than any one else.
Some time during the spring or summer of 1868 there was great excitement
amongst the fishing-boat owners of Lowestoft and other ports on account
of an Act just passed regulating the building of vessels, having especial
regard to the ventilation of the cuddy, forecastle, or the men's sleeping
quarters. Posh tells me that many owners of drifters considered that the
Act applied to all craft, including fishing boats, and that great expense
was undergone by some over-conscientious owners in fitting ventilating
drums and shafts in accordance with the Act. If the statute applied to
any drifter it would apply to the _Meum and Tuum_, and FitzGerald
evidently thought that the intention of the Act was that fishing boats
should be exempt. He proved to be right, for the regulations were never
enforced on fishing boats. He wrote to Posh:--
"WOODBRIDGE, _Saturday_.
"DEAR POSH,
"You must lay out three halfpence on the _Eastern Times_ for last
Friday. In that Newspaper there is a good deal written about that Act
for altering Vessels: the Writer is quite sure--that the Act does
_not_ apply to Fishing craft; and he writes as if he knew what he was
writing about. But most likely if he had written just the contrary,
it would have seemed as right to me. Do you therefore fork out three
halfpennies, as I tell you, and study the matter and talk it over with
others. The owners of Vessels should lose no time in meeting, and in
passing some Resolution on the Subject.
"I have not seen Newson, but West was down at the Ferry some days back
and saw him. For a wonder, he [Newson] was _Fishing_!--for
Codlings--for there really was nothing else to do: no Woodbridge
Vessels coming in and out the Harbour, nor any work for the Salvage
Smacks. He spoke of his Wife as much the same: Smith, the Pilot,
thought her much altered when last he saw her.
"You will buy such things as you spoke of wanting at the Lowestoft
Sales if they go at a reasonable price. As to the claim made by your
Yawl, I suppose it will come down to half. The builders are coming to
my house again next week, I believe, having left their work undone.
"Now, here is a Letter for your Mantelpiece to-morrow--Sunday--I don't
think I have more to say.
"Yours E. FG.
"Mr. Durrant has never sent me the hamper of Flowers he promised.
"P.S. I post this letter before Noon so as you will receive it this
evening: and can get the Newspaper I tell you of:
"_Eastern Times_ for _Friday_ last sold at Chapman's."
Posh does not remember whether he laid out the three halfpence or not.
But he doubts it. "I knowed as that couldn't ha' nothin' ta dew along o'
us," says he. And he stuck to his guns and proved to be right.
"West" has been mentioned before as being an old fellow with whom
FitzGerald used to navigate the river Deben in a small boat before the
building of the _Scandal_. Newson's wife, like Posh's, was often ailing.
Kind "Fitz" had written previously (July 25th, 1868; _Letters_, Eversley
Edition, p. 106) to Professor Cowell:--
". . . I only left Lowestoft partly to avoid a Volunteer Camp there
which filled the Town and People with Bustle: and partly that my
Captain might see his Wife: who cannot last very much longer I think:
scarcely through the Autumn, surely. She goes about, nurses her
children, etc., but grows visibly thinner, weaker and more ailing."
{The "Happy New Year" yawl, belonging to Posh's beach company: p107.jpg}
The "claim made by your yawl" refers to a claim for salvage made by the
company of beach men (of which Posh was a member) owning a yawl.
FitzGerald (as has been seen before) always took a humorous interest in
the doings of the "sea pirates," yclept beach men or "salwagers," and he
doubtless enjoyed his little chuckle at Posh's expense.
The builders were at work on Little Grange, which FitzGerald predicted he
would never live in but would die in. However, he falsified both
predictions, for he lived in the house ten years and died in Norfolk.
Mr. Durrant was still in default. I doubt if FitzGerald ever got those
flowers. They were plants, Posh tells me, which FitzGerald wished to
plant out at Little Grange.
I can find no record of the principal, the Martinmas or Autumn, fishing
of 1868. But in the spring of 1869 the _Meum and Tuum_ went to the "West
Fishing" for mackerel, even as a large number of our modern steam
drifters go now, to the indignation of the pious fishermen of Penzance,
Newlyn, and St. Ives. These good fellows of the west have, I think, some
reason to complain that it is unfair that they should suffer for
righteousness' sake. Looking at the point in dispute impartially, it
_does_ seem hard that the men of the locality should see Easterlings
bringing in good catches of fish as the result of what the Cornishmen
regard as a desecration of "the Lord's Day." The religious sentiment
which prevents the western and southern men from putting off on Sunday is
genuine and sincere enough. The Scotch herring boats, which come in
their thousands to Yarmouth and Lowestoft for the autumn fishing, are
always in harbour from Saturday night to Monday morning, though the local
boats fish all days and nights. But by keeping in harbour the Scotchmen
offend the sensibilities of no one, whereas there is much bitterness
caused in the west by the refusal of the Easterlings to fall in with
local custom.
On March 1st, 1869, FitzGerald wrote to Professor Cowell (_Letters_, II,
107, Eversley Edition):--
"MY DEAR COWELL,
". . . My lugger Captain has just left me to go on his Mackerel Voyage
to the Western Coast; and I don't know when I shall see him again. . .
. You can't think what a grand, tender Soul this is, lodged in a
suitable carcase."
FitzGerald thought very highly of that "carcase" of Posh's, as will be
seen from the story of the Laurence portrait, set forth hereinafter, as
the lawyers, whom Posh hates so much, would say.
The sleeping partner throughout seems to have had more anxiety on account
of Posh's sea hazards than on account of business losses. How the
mackerel paid I do not know, but Posh was in time to go north for the
beginning of the herring fishing in July.