at £20 per last; thus earning £120 in the two nights. The boats in the north were only moderately successful, although one boat that was missing during a gale, returned with fish to Yarmouth that realised £50.
A Glut of Herrings. The week ending Oct. 27th was a very busy one with those connected with the fishery, there having been some extraordinary catches of herrings on several days, which realised sums of money ranging from £10 to £100. On Sunday the 21st, the beach at Hastings presented a rare scene, the heavily-laden boats bringing in their cargoes in rapid succession until the amazingly large quantity of 70 or 80 lasts was deposited theron(sic). On Monday and following days some very fair sivvers were made, notwithstanding that the scaly tribe exhibited themselves in diminished numbers. The wholesale price ranged from £19 down to £10 per last, whilst the itinerant retailer shouted them at 20 a shilling[1] or 40 a shilling[2], according to circumstances.
Our Boats in the North Sea. After the great catch described above the herring season at home was mainly suspended in consequence of moonlit nights; but the larger Hastings luggers in the North Sea were reported to be doing well. An unprecedented quantity of fish had been sent into Yarmouth. One boat had caught 200,000 herrings in one night, and another boat (belonging to the neighbourhood of Yarmouth) was unfortunately lost by its overload, and its crew of nine men drowned. The fish continued to remain plentiful in the north, and the season promised to be longer than usual. On the 18th or 19th of Nov. E. Kent’s “Ocean Queen”, of Hastings, took five lasts into Lowestoft and exchanged them for £75, and W. Breach’s “Pet” did the same. The weather during that week was not very favourable for home fishing, although on Tuesday, Nov. 20th, or Wednesday Nov. 21st, four Hastings boats landed a last each at Rye, which realised an average of £9 per last. It was reported from Yarmouth that herrings continued to be caught there in large quantities, and that after the return home of the Hastings boats, some of the others made as much by their fish as £100 per night.
The End of the Season. In the third week of December the following paragraph appeared in some of the London papers. “The parties engaged in the fishery off the eastern coast are now making up and congratulating themselves on the success which has attended their vigorous labours. It is estimated that the boats connected with Great Yarmouth have taken 8,000 to 10,000 lasts, or the enormous number of 100,000,000 fish. The sum thus obtained by each boat has been from £400 to £1,000; and all taken above £500 per boat is profit. At -
- ↑ An explanation of old currency and coinage may be found at the following website Pre-decimal currency, accessdate: 16 June 2022
- ↑ An explanation of old currency and coinage may be found at the following website Pre-decimal currency, accessdate: 16 June 2022
