Published in History and antiquities of Filey in the county of York by John Cole 1832
Fishing at Filey is carried on at four distinct periods of the year; the first is when the large boats are fitted out, in the middle or end of January; they then generally proceed to the southward, and supply the markets of Hull, Boston, and Lynn with fish[note 1]: these boats are from fifty to sixty tons burthen, lugger rigged, having a crew of six men and two boys, and carry two cobbles to sea with them, for the purpose of shooting their lines; each man being obliged to have five lines, which contain 1350 fathoms, and 1150 hooks, and five others called overs, containing 900 fathoms and 300 hooks, making a total of 2250 fathoms and 1450 hooks. On arriving at the spot where they judge is good fishing, they anchor the large boat, and three men in each cobble put off and shoot their lines in different directions, to the distance of nearly nine miles:after the lines have remained a sufficient time at the bottom they proceed to haul in, and sometimes are amply rewarded,getting as many fish, as the cobble will carry. The fish, consisting of Holibut(some of which weigh as much as twelve stone, and upward) Cod, Ling, Turbot, Haddock, and Skate. During the time
NOTES
1. The benefits derived by man, from this part of the animal creation, are inumerable. To millions of our race, a light and wholesome food, constant employment, and the means of procuring, if not wealth, yet many comforts of life. Numerous facts are connected with the fisheries, on which the mind may ruminate with equal pleasure and surprise, and which will recall to the christian's remembrance the blessing conferred at the creation, when God, contemplating the inhabitants of the waters, which his own hand had just brought into existence, blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas.' We may here, also, gratefully reflect upon one of the many results of the Saviour's mediation, the partial restoration to man of that 'dominion over the fish of the sea,' which was bestowed upon him when he was invested with the government of the earth, but which he lost at the fall, when the crown fell from his head, and his honour was laid in the dust. More than 750 million pounds weight of Cod fish have been caught on the bank of Newfoundland alone, in one year, giving employment to three hundred vessels, of from one hundred to two hundred tons burden.
