The dimensions of the “bushes” must have increased most at the end of
the XVIIIth or beginning of the XIXth century; the “statie” was then
suppressed and the fish tank appeared. The boats supplied with this
tank were called _Kwee_ according to ~Hoogendijk~ (p. 59). The “bush”
proper which was used exclusively for the herring fishery, had no fish
tank.
The “bush” which had a howker rig was also called a _Hoekerbuis_. What
~Hoogendijk~ tells about the origin of the _howker_, in his interesting
book on the “Grootvisscherij”, does not seem to be wholly exact.
According to him (p. 59) the “howker” is said to be descended from the
“Hoekerbuis” by the suppression of the “statie”. But, according to
~Witsen~ and ~Van Yk~, the howkers have existed from the earliest times
and, hence, long before the appearance of the “Hoekerbuis”.
The “howker” is met with as a contemporary of the “bush” from which it
differs quite a good deal in shape; the placing of the “howker” rig on
the “bush” proves that the former vessel was already in existence in
the time of the latter.