FORTUNES IN FISH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 224, 16 June 1919, Page 5

FORTUNES IN FISH

HULL SKIPPERS WHO MAKE £10,000 A YEAR WAR TIME PROFITS Three photographs in a recent newspapor have made-it difficult to write about one aspect of the subject that in(lucod mo to break my journey north at this seaport. The heading is "Local I'lshermen Lost n't Sea," and the portraits are those of Skipper Charles Bryant, tho trawler Durban, and two members of the crews of the trawlers Scotland and Southward. All three boats aro believed to havo struck derelict £ ile y ar « simply registered as missing. Tragedies such as tlieso remind one that tho skippers who are still piling up fortunes out of fish after all take thoir lull share ol risk with the lower ratings. Even ithough tho German Navy has ceased to exist they take their lives in their hands every time they put to sea. Yet the skippers remain a locnl joke. They are so enormously wealthy, according to-fishermen's standards,! and pu't en such airs—with their motor-cars, their town houses and their country houses— that Hull is apt to lose sight of their pluck and jeer enviously. At the present time there are some 90 working their vessels out of the port, and the. great majority are rough .sailors, with a rule-of-tuumb knowledge of navigation, and tho most ideas about ; the best way to spend fortunes. l'heso war fortunes are substantial. A number .of skippers have netted from ,£BOOO to ,£IO,OOO in a year. • At least inno is known to have' made close on J;12,C0O.£1000 a month. War-time profits of ,£25,000 all told are quite, common. I The record so far is held by the skip, per of the Conan Doyle, which early last autumn inado the. Iceland voyage twice within six weeks, bringing back just under ,£IO,OOO worth of fish on the first trip and just oyer ,£IO,OOO worth on tho second, with minor catchcs in l>etween. As a skipper draws ten per cent, of the value of the catch, less the cost of his food, theso two voyages .yielded this particular skipper close on JE2OOO in cash. The second and most successful voyage lasted no more than seventeen days. Gamble Against Time, Fortunes only a little less remarkable are still being made. The owners—who take no bodily risks—do even belter. I am assured that a single boat, which would hardly have been thought worth sending to sea before the war, and could be bought for a few thousands indeed, can be counted on under present conditions 'to bring in net profits at the rate of *£20,000 to .£25,0 CO a year'. Owners are so chary about letting the world know the amount of their gains that exact figureo aro difficult to arrive at. The wildest speculation in trawlers is going on at the moment, and boats are constantly changing hands at ridiculous figures. A dozen little private companies have been formed during the past few weeks, and each day lias its fresh rumour of 6ome new deal. It is all a gamble against time. When the minesweepers are back at their proper job of fishing, the fleet will bo multiplied by three, and a.very different tale will have to be told. In tho meantime tho people who oat fish have to pay for the luxury of other people's gambling. Captain and capitalist have been, and are, making their pile. Not so tho crew. There ia a curious lack of proportion about the distribution of those, as of other, spoils of war, A chief engineer on tho Iceland voyage makes an average of JDIO 10a. a week (with his keep), and on the North Sea voyage ,£8 10s. These are, of course, exceptional cases, such as that of the Conan Doyle's record. A .£IO,OOO cargo means about £10 ia the pocket of the chief engineer. All ratings from bo'sun to 'spars hand draw 2d. in the 4! on the net amount of enrnings (pins wages and war-risk pay of from ,£1 3s. to .£1 9s. a weik), as against tho skipper's 2s. in the £ on gross earnings. Anil seeing that a bo'sun's family eats jnst as. much as a captain's or a * capitalist's, the cost of living hits him far harder. Still, even the bo'6im and tho deck hand are doin» remarkably Well out of tho people's food, It is difficult to see how they will accommodate themselves to the piping times of peace: