y
COUNTY CORK.
139
to give productive employment to upwards of fifty hookers, chiefly belonging to Berehaven
and the coast immediately adjacent; at present there are not more than twenty employed in
the Fisheries.
The general condition of the hookers, as well as of the smaller fishing boats, is bad and
defective ; the owners are in bad spirits, mostly poor, and unable to procure the necessary
outfit. The loss of the bounty on the fish taken, as well as of the loan fund under the late
Fishery Board, was of the greatest injury; it was so suddenly abolished, that the people
were worse off than if it never had existed.
The Lack Bank, about thirty miles off Berehaven, is one of the most productive fishing
grounds on the southern coast, and used formerly to be resorted to during the season for
Cod and Ling, not only by the vessels of the neighbourhood, but by the wherries from the
east coast of Ireland. At present, they are rarely seen, and yet there can be no doubt that fish
still abounds upon the same bank; for whenever the weather is so favourable as to enable
the ill-found and smaller-sized boats to proceed to the bank, the quantity of fish brought in
amounts to a glut, so far as the fresh market is concerned; and it sometimes happens,
that proper arrangements for curing are not made, so that it would be desirable if some
extensive curing establishments were formed. But, upon the whole, the supply has never
equalled the demand to any greater extent than a considerable diminution in the price, for
all is sure to be purchased, though perhaps sometimes at a low rate.
Tlie supply of bait depends chiefly upon the exertions of the fishermen with their nets ;
there are no depots or certain sources from which it can be procured; there are no mussel
banks, nor are any imported. It would be vei-y desirable to have some such means of
supply.
Those fishermen who have some small portion of land are invariably better off than those
who have not; not that agricultural employment is more profitable than fishing, but
there are periods when fishing cannot be pursued, and that the moi'al condition, as
well as the circumstances of those who during such periods are employed on their
bits of land, is far superior to that of persons who, having no employment when they are
not fishing, pass their time in idleness, or indulge in their habitual disposition to drinking.
The use of ardent spirits prevails to a very great degree amongst the fishermen, particu¬
larly liiose resident in Castletown; indeed, it is much to be regretted that the vice is a
very prevalent one amongst the working classes throughout the district; and the employ¬
ment given upon a very extended scale at the Alihies copper mines, near Berehaven, has
not by any means produced the increase of comfort or prosperity that may be supposed to
result from profitable occupation. Immediately after pay-day, the neighbourhood of the
mines exhibits the most disgraceful scenes of drunkeimess; and there appears to be a total
deficiency in the establishment of that moral discipline which is quite necessary to render such
prosperity really productive of improvement and happiness. The truck system is said to
prevail. There is no indication of the accumulation of small capitals. The habitations of
the labouring classes are not improved, and the same squalid misery which is too frequent on
other parts of the coasts, is equally observable here.
Bere Island is most favourably circumstanced for a fishing station. Its inlets afford abun¬
dant shelter; it has a convenient quay or landing pier, built by the late Fishery Board.
There is quite sufficient land to afford allotments to fishermen ; and the Government build¬
ings, at present unemployed, may be most profitably occupied as curing establishments.
Berehaven is one of the finest harbours on the coast of Ireland, large and well sheltered.
The ground is every where good, and the water sufficiently deep for the largest ships in the
navy. It has two entrances, at the east and west ends of Bere Island: the western entrance
i? the most direct, but the other is safer for strangers. The anchorage is good every where
on the north side of the island, in from live to eleven fathoms water.
Donovan, the shipwriglit says, that a well regulated system of loan fund would tend
most materially to the improvement of the Fisheries, by affording the means of obtaining a
better class of boats, and of repairing the existing vessels. In cases where new vessels were
to be provided, he thinks that two-thirds, or perhaps three-fourths of the cost of building
and outfit, may safely be given on the security of the vessel itself, with the addition of such
further personal security as the borrower could procure. The re-payment should be divided
into a number of small instalments, spread over a space of at least three years; but every
inducement should be held out to the borrowers, either by a small bonus, or the remission
of the interest, to great punctualitj^, or to the anticipation of the periods fixed for payment,
whenever a prosperous fishery enaloled them to do so. The system of orders upon shop¬
keepers or traders, adopted by the late Fishery Board, was extremely defective; and it
frequently happened that other articles, rather than fisheiy materials, were taken by the
people on those orders. In trusting that class of persons with the money to purchase, it
would in some instances be attended with danger; but upon the whole, if the assistance
was only extended to persons of good chai'acter, it would be a better plan than the former
system.
Depots of salt and fishery materials at the principal stations, under the custody of the
Customs department, or of some other authorised persons, would be extremely useful.
Another mode of supplying the wants of the poor fishermen along the coast would be, to afford
to small traders of good characters, on security, the means of laying in larger and better
stocks, (and on cheaper terms,) of those articles most necessary for prosecuting the fishery.
If such persons had the means of giving sufficiently long credit to the fishermen on their own
responsibility, they would perhaps be, generally speaking, the most competent persons to
judge of the claims of the fishermen to credit and assistance; and if the number of such per¬
sons was increased, competition would insure a certainty of reasonable prices.
S 2
Condition of
Boats.
Fishing Banks.
Bait.
Advantages of
Land.
Use of Ardent
Spirits.
Bere Island.
Berehaven Har¬
bour.
Loan Funds.
Depots of
Materials
