The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

A similar pattern of incremental innovation and growth pertained on
the supply side of the trawling sector from the 1850s. However, clear
shifts in gear can be discerned. With regard to the catching operation, the
displacement of the beam trawl by the otter trawl from the mid-1890s led
to substantial improvements in efficiency. Likewise, the stern factory
freezer trawler, a concept pioneered in Britain during the 1950s but then
developed more vigorously by East European nations, greatly enhanced
the catching capacity of the industry. 242 In conjunction with the
intensification of the fishing effort, technological developments in vessel
propulsion significantly extended the range of British trawlers. The
application of steam power to trawling in the final quarter of the
nineteenth century was especially important in this respect. While sailing
trawlers had sustained the expansion of white fish supplies from the
1840s, their range was necessarily limited by the elements and their
efficiency impaired by a dependence on steam cutters to convey catches
to market. In effect, the application of steam—which remained the prime
motive force until the 1950s—permitted British trawlers to operate
beyond the North Sea, and long before the First World War such vessels
were prosecuting grounds off Iceland and Norway, and as distant as the
Barents Sea. 243 The advent of distant-water steam trawling also had a
major bearing on the structure of firms, for it entailed a substantial
increase in initial and operational costs. As a consequence, highly
capitalized joint-stock companies swiftly came to dominate the industry,
raising funds from outside the fishing communities and employing
trawlermen on a wage labour basis. In effect, the application of steam
propelled distant-water trawling into the realms of capitalistic big
business. 244
Notwithstanding the significance of distant-water trawling, this was
not the only facet of the modern British fishing industry. As in medieval
and early modern times, the herring fishery continued to play an
important part in the economies of many coastal communities, especially
in east Scotland between 1815 and 1914. Though subject to short-term
fluctuations, this business generally expanded in terms of output and
income during this period, reaching a climax in the 1907-1911
242 Robinson, ‘Sea Fisheries’.
243 Robinson, ‘Development of British Steam Trawling’.
244 Robinson, Rise and Fall.
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