A boat is usually divided into six shares, each of the crew
having one share; the proceeds of the fish, after deducting the
price or hire of the boat and other expenses incurred on account of
the crew, for which the crew is responsible as a company, being
also divided into six shares. In some rare cases the shares are
fewer, and one or two of the men are hired.
It is an invariable rule that a boat's crew delivers all its fish
taken during the summer to the same merchant. In a few cases this
arises, as it formerly did almost universally, simply from the fact
that the men are all tenants of a proprietor or middle-man, who
makes it a condition of their holding their crofts that they shall
fish for him. In others, it is the subject of an express or tacit
arrangement with a particular fish-curer.
When he delivers his fish, the fisherman does not receive
payment for it, nor does he know what price it will bring. The
arrangement or understanding is, that the price is to be at the
current rate at the end of the season. The season ends, so far as the
fishing is concerned, at or about August 12; but the sales are not
made until September and October, when the process of curing
is completed. The settlement of the price does not take place
till November, December, or January; and in the case of one
merchant, it appears to have been more than once delayed to a
considerably later period. When a number of crews deliver their
fish to the same merchant, especially if he has a number of stations
at different parts of the islands, his settlements are considerably
protracted. Each crew, as I have said, has got supplies at the
fishing station; it has also got fishing materials, and it may have to
pay the hire, or instalments of the price, of its boat. These are all
debited to the crew in a ledger account, kept in the name of the
skipper and crew, thus -'John Simpson & Co., Stenness.' The
sums due for these items being deducted from the total amount of
the boat's fishing, the balance is divided into shares, which are
carried to the private accounts of the several fishermen; for in
almost every case the fisherman and his family obtain, during the
year, 'supplies' of goods from the shop of the fish-curer. In the
great majority of cases there are no passbooks for such accounts.
The private account is read over to the fisherman by the fishcurer,
or by his shopkeeper, where he does not personally manage that
department of his business; and the fisherman being satisfied as to
its correctness, or, as it often happens, trusting to the honesty of
the merchant, it is settled, any balance due to the fisherman being
paid in cash, any balance against him being carried to his debit in a
new account. [See below - SETTLEMENTS AND PASS-BOOKS] THE
debit against the fisherman consists-(1.) Of any balance against
him in the account of the previous year; (2.) Of goods of various
kinds supplied from the store; (3.) Of cash advanced in the course
of the year, either to himself personally, or for rent, taxes, or other
payments made on his account. It may possibly occur in a bad
season, that his share of a balance against the crew with which he
has been fishing may increase his indebtedness; but no case of this
kind has been brought under my notice. On the other hand, he is
credited with the price of his fish at the current rate, and with the
price of any cattle or ponies sold by him to the merchant. The
smaller farm produce, such as butter and eggs, although very often
sold to the same merchant, does not enter the account, having been
paid in goods across the counter, rarely in cash, at the time of
delivery.
[See below, p. 24.]
[Page 6 rpt.]