Ethel M. Hewitt

“ At special seasons, during holy week for instance, it is not unusual for as many as 200 to 300 fish-wagons to be dispatched, carrying 700 to 800 tons. The traffic in small parcels of fish has attained, especially in recent years, to remarkable proportions, thousands of these being now sent away daily.
Prior to the supersession of sail by steam, the fishing-grounds of Iceland and the Faroe Islands [16] had been regularly visited by the Grimsby fishermen. ”

“ The company are further lessees of the slipway built by the dock authorities in 1899 at a cost of £7,000, which, in addition to trawlers, is capable of receiving vessels up to 200 ft. in length and 1,000 tons dead weight. The value of the fish landed here amounts to about £100,000 yearly, being distributed throughout the kingdom by the wholesale merchants, to whom it is sold immediately on its arrival. The coal consumed by the company amounts to upwards of 50,000 tons per annum, the whole of conveyed from the colliery in wagons belonging to them. ”

“ In addition to the manufacture of ice, several smoke-houses have been established for the curing of herrings and haddocks. The Grimsby curers have long since wrested the palm from their Dutch competitors of the seventeenth century. The salting and drying of cod is now by no means an unimportant feature of the trade in fish. ”

“ These vessels, twelve years old, were so completely modernized in their passage through the company's workshops that they may be said to have been transformed into new boats. During the winter months, when outside work becomes more or less slack, the firm is engaged in the manufacture of auxiliary machinery for steam trawlers, such as powerful double-barrelled steam winches, stearing gears, donkey engines and pumps, line haulers and windlasses. In the four different departments into which the works are divided constant employment is found for about 100 hands. ”

“ The main feature of this department is the production of engines with drop valves, of which many thousands are in use in all parts of the world. In addition to these the firm makes a speciality of high-speed engines for electric purposes, portable engines, traction engines and road locomotives, steam tractors and steam wagons, besides a vast amount of machinery for the equipment of mines. Over 25,000 engines have been manufactured by this company, and are at work in all parts of the world. ”

“ In every instance, however, the preponderance of lime in the ore necessitates the admixture with other ore of a siliceous character, notably such as is raised near Lincoln, at Monk's Abbey and Greetwell. In 1898, 7,848,404 tons of ore were raised at Frodingham, and there were twenty blast furnaces at work, producing about 300,000 tons of iron. [5] To the total output of iron ore for the whole kingdom (13,774,282 tons) Lincolnshire (with Leicestershire) contributes a third. ”

“ The fishing for shrimps, which still maintain their reputation for quality, is carried on at Boston for nine months in the year by smacks, and also by men driving in a cart with one horse, of which there are twenty-eight along the coast. ”

“ The manufacture of traction engines followed, and then began the trials instituted by the Royal Agricultural Society, at which the firm carried all before them until 1872, when the last of these competitions was held. Since the formation of the firm into a limited liability company the operations of its workshops have been greatly extended. The number of men employed is 2,500, not including the workmen engaged at the Vienna establishment, and at other branches on the Continent. ”

“ For in 1680, we learn from the latter chronicler, the Dutch profit on the English fishery was about £5,000,000 in cod and herring, whilst their fleet numbered 8,000 ships, manned by 200,000 men. [6] The reputation of the Boston herring was especially great, a hundred dollars being considered a small price for a barrel of these fish, cured after the Dutch fashion, the secret of which was so long kept from their English neighbours and rivals. ”

“ In 1901 the directors, in common with trawler-owners elsewhere along the east coast, awoke to the necessity of obtaining a class of seamen whose early training should fit them for the conditions which have replaced the trawling of the past. The apprenticeship system was therefore adopted, and a home was established for the accommodation of the boys when on shore. The lads, of whom there are now more than thirty on articles, are bound for four years, which is the shortest term on the coast, and during their apprenticeship every boy is allowed a reasonable amount of spending money. ”

“ The total make of pig iron in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire is 376,674 tons; the iron ore used, 1,261,937 tons; total of coal used, 972,597 tons. The number of persons employed in and about and dealing in the products of mines and quarries, according to the census of 1901, is 1,951. ”

“ Since, therefore, to quote from Young, 'the farmers of this county were alive to improvements and ready to adopt any new instruments which promised utility,' [2] in no other market in the world, at the dawn of the new era of steam, was the manufacturing engineer more absolutely assured of a future. ”

“ Arthur Young, making his agricultural survey of Lincolnshire in 1799, was struck by the number of fen farmers who were also inventors. Such for instance were Mr. Cartwright of Brothertoft, whose plough with bean-drill attached, twitch-drag, and sward-dresser, were supplemented by a cartoon, or water-cart, of his own designing ”

“ From the point of view of employment alone, such an undertaking cannot but prove of considerable profit to the community in whose midst it is being carried on. The number of hands actually employed by the company is upwards of 500, the weekly amount paid in wages being about £800 or £900. ”

“ In 1905 the fishing vessels registered at Grimsby were as follows:—
Forty-two thousand and ten men and boys (not including coopers, packers, curers, and net-makers) are returned as plying their trade here; more than half of them come from six ports, of which five are on the east coast. Grimsby records a total of 4,823 resident in the port, 3,967 being engaged in trawling (except for shrimps) , and 856 in other modes of fishing. In the 'floating' fish returns for England and Wales, herrings predominate, the total in 1904 being 3,199,303 cwt. Grimsby's contribution being 391,819 cwt. ”

“ Employment is given to over 2,000 men. The gradual increase of the firm's output has resulted in the multiplication of foundries and painting and packing shops, now embracing a total area of over 100,000 square feet. ”

“ Ironstone, once extensively worked in the south of the county, is now transferred, as far as the point of operation is concerned, to the northwest area, such area having for its boundaries the three rivers, Humber, Trent, and Ancholme. ”

“ Royal Dock, 25 acres; No. 1 Graving Dock, 400 ft. long; No. 2 Graving Dock, 400 ft. long; No. 3 Graving Dock, 450 ft. long; Union Dock, 11⁄4 acres; Alexandra Dock, 48 acres; No. 1 Fish Dock, 13 acres; No. 2 Fish Dock, 16 acres; Pontoon Dry Dock for fishing craft, 116 ft. 8 in. long. ↑ Daily Telegraph, 13 July 1906. ↑ The decrease in 1901 was due to the fishermen's strike, ot which Mr. F. G. Aflalo devotes several pages of the sixth chapter of his important work on The Sea-Fishing Industry of England and Wales. ”