.
126
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.
State of Boats.
Present Boats very
insufficient.
Old Prejudices in
favour of spritsail
Boats.
Prejudice no
longer exists.
Fishing Gear.
Mr. Rothvvell's ac¬
count of the Fish¬
ery on the Kerry
Coast.
Fishing Grounds.
Kelative Produc¬
tiveness of Fishe¬
ries on E. and S. W.
coast.
same inducement to cure that formerly existed. The fresh market is glutted whenever any
quantity is taken; and the fishermen being obliged to submit to any terms offered to them
by a set of persons called jolters, who combine to keep down the prices, and who oftentimes
have the fishermen in their power, by having made them trifling advances. The fresh fish
thus sold at very low prices afford them but a scanty subsistence; and in the winter season,
they have the mortification to see their own town supplied with Scotch Hemngs, and by
Irish-cured fish, sold at four times the price at which their necessities oblige them to sell
theirs fresh.
The class of boats used by the fishermen of Dingle has always been of a very inferior
description; they are heavy, stout open yawls, about twenty to twenty-four feet keel, eight
feet beam, and from three to four feet deep, with two masts and spritsails. They are
excellent sea-boats, but they afford no shelter; and the sprit-pole, which is remarkably
long, is very apt to escape from the strap in which it is stepped, and to perforate the side
of the boat. They occasionally use four remarkably heavy oars : and so strong has the pre-
judice been in favour of that class of boats, that in 1823, when Mr. Barry was administer¬
ing a fund for the relief of the Dingle fishermen who received the grant from Government,
in consequence of the effects of a dreadful storm, he made several ineffectual efforts to in¬
duce them to substitute a better class of small hookers.
Ml-. Grey states, that he remembered Mi\ Barry having offered to pay half, or two-thirds
of the cost of a certain number of hookers, and having brought an experienced hooker-
builder from Kinsale to execute the work, but the proposal was rejected; and Mr. Grey
believes, that if the hookers had been built altogether for them, they would have refused to
use them, preferring, as they did, the boats of the old plan.
Robert Collier, a fisherman, admits that the Dingle fishermen were very wrong at that
time, and that they would now be very glad to use hookers, if they had the means of pro¬
curing them; but their objections to the change were not wholly groundless. There was
not then, nor is there now, a sufficiency of shelter accommodation in the harbour. Hookers
are not so easily hauled up in case of storm as their present boats. There formerly was an
abundant bay or inshore fishery, for which the open boats were quite sufficient; however,
between trammels and seans, the bay fishery has totally failed, and the people now feei
convinced, that in order to follow the fish into the deep sea, they must have a class of ves¬
sels that will afford accommodation and shelter.
They use spillards, about 300 hooks to each boat, for taking Cod, Haddock, Gurnet,
Sole, and Plaice; hand lines for the Hake fishery; and sometimes long lines for Cod,
Ling, and Eel.
Mr. Rothwell is the owner of a small cutter of thirty tons; and having been for several
years acquainted with the fisheries of the east coast of Ireland, came to Dingle in February
last, for the purpose of trj'ing what could be done on that coast; has been about one month
at work ; has five men, to whom he pays from twenty to thirty shillings per month each ; is
equipped with long lines, hand lines, &c. and provided with salt and other accommodations
for curing on board. Gets an abundance of mussel and lug bait. Has generally fished
about a mile off Dowlas Head, where he has taken large quantities of Plaice, and finest
black Soles,—but the fish of which he has taken the most are Haddock, of the finest quality,
which he cures, otherwise fishing here would be attended with no profit, as, in the present
state of the fish trade in this quarter, flat fish, or that which is suited only to the fresh
market, is hardly worth taking, and the consequence is, that it is as often scarce as abun¬
dant in the market. The jolters (carrying dealers or cadgers,) who furnish the principal
source of demand, have combined against buying his fish, and he has in consequence been
generally obliged to make presents of his flat fish. Black Soles, the finest in the world, are
sold to the jolters at from l\d. to Ad. per couple. He has cured some remarkably fine Cod,
Ling, Haddock, and Eels, and it is his intention, when he has accumulated a full cargo, to
proceed with it either to Lisbon or the Mediterranean; is quite convinced that the &her-
men of this quarter never can be prosperous, until they are in a position to enable them to
cure the bulk of their take, either for export or domestic sale, in the season when fish is
valuable. Thinks that, under such circumstances, the fresh market would be better, be¬
cause more regularly supplied than at present; entertains strong hopes of the success of his
undertaking; is quite satisfied of the productiveness of the coast in fish, although there are
through the Bay of Dingle, only patches of clean ground where it is safe to shoot lines.
The Sound of the Blaskets abounds in the finest flat fish; and Cod and Ling are found
in the largest quantities off Bray Head, near Portmagee.
Patrick Keay, a fisherman, states that there is a bank about twenty-five leagues W.N.W.
of the Blaskets; at least it is such a distance in those bearings, that you sink the Peak
•of Brandon Head. Was many years in a Revenue cutter, and in the habit of taking
large quantities of the finest fish on this bank. Its appeai'ance is denoted by unusual numbers
of sea fowl. Has spoken to several persons, who having passed over it in coasting vessels,
had in a short time nearly filled the decks with Cod, Ling, and Eels, in about thirty-five
fathoms water.
Jeremiah Fennerty, a very old fisherman, remembers, about forty years ago, on his
return from Lisbon, to have taken fish on this bank as fast as the lines could be hauled in;
has never since gone upon the same bank, because there was no craft in the harbour fit for
such a distant fishery; thinks the Dingle fishermen will never be well off, until they have
proper vessels fit for going to the deep sea.
Upon the whole, Mr. Rothwell is convinced that it is possible, by proper arrangement,
to take more fish in a week here, than in a month on the east coast, owing, as he believes,
to the serious injury done in the latter place by the practice of trawling. Mr. Rothwel
