THE sea fisheries of this country cannot but be a subject of interest to every one, •whether living on the sea-coast or inland, but more particularly must they be so to the friends of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION, because of the Association's intimate connection with the fishermen round our coasts, who form the majority of the Life-boat crews, and have ever shown themselves ready to face all dangers in carrying out their self-imposed work of rendering help to those in danger from shipwreck. It is true that many of these services are performed to comrades and relations making for the shore when caught at sea in their boats by one of those sudden changes of weather for which our climate is proverbial, but they are always made with equal readiness to strangers or foreigners.

The reports of the Inspector of Sea Fisheries, under the new Fisheries Department of the Board of Trade, will well repay perusal, especially this year's, which deals in a great measure with the dangers incidental to deep-sea fishing and the measures taken to guard against them.

The Report commences with reference to several clauses of the Merchant Shipping (Fishing Boats) Act, 1887, which, we think, might be more clearly described as the Fishing Boats Act Amendment Act. "With the object of bringing a considerable number of steam trawlers within the clauses requiring that the skippers and second hands of trawlers of a certain tonnage should hold certificates, the Act provides that the gross, and not the nett tonnage, shall be taken as the registered tonnage. It then makes it compulsory on the owners to render to all hands, paid by shares of the catches, detailed accounts of the fish sold, as well as of all deductions made in respect of expenses and provisions.

After referring to further clauses of minor interest, the Report comes to a clause it very rightly styles "a most important one." It is the one that deals with the question of " boarding," or the system in vogue for conveying the fish when caught from the fishing vessel proper to the steam carrier, or " cutter," that is to take it to market. This carrier is an innovation sprung up of late years, consequent on the use of the steamengine.

Instead of every vessel now bringing her own fish in to market, as in the " good old days," the greater number of the fishing vessels remain out for weeks, sending their fish home by steamers employed for the purpose. The fishing vessels keep together and form " fleets," under an acknowledged head called the Admiral, who has certain defined duties and responsibilities, and whose authority is generally well recognized within the limits of those duties; hence the term " fleeting," as this system is called. It will be readily understood that the " boarding," carried out in the middle of the North Sea at all seasons of the year, must be a work of considerable danger, and one requiring the most careful arrangement and supervision that circumstances admit of. A number of lives are lost every year in this service; during 1887 the number was 24. Lamentable as this is, considering all things, it is almost less than might have been anticipated, and appears to us to fully confirm the verdict of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION after special inquiry in 1881, and the now general opinion, that the fishing-smacks' boats are, to use the words of the Report, "well adapted for the purposes for which they are intended, and could scarcely be improved upon." The section of the Act above referred to as " important" is the one that provides that the Board of Trade, " on the application of the owners or responsible managers of fleets," shall make regulations respecting the conveyance of fish from trawlers to vessels engaged in collecting and carrying fish to ports, as may appear to the Board to be expedient for the purpose of preventing loss of life, or danger to life or limb, such regulations to be laid before Parliament for thirty days, and then to become law unless any contrary resolution be passed.

Two fleets have already availed themselves of the Act, and the regulations published, if properly carried out, should go far to ensure order and lessen risk to life.

The regulations provide that there shall be one signal for " boarding " to be undertaken, and that it shall be displayed by the carrier, but not in such weather as to render it dangerous for boats to do the work. The Admiral, when present, shall determine whether the weather is fit for the work or not; if he thinks it so, he will cause the carrier to make the signal. In the Admiral's absence this duty devolves on the master of the carrier. Whilst the boarding signal is flying, the master of the carrier must be on deck, and is given full authority over the crews of all boats alongside his vessel. In the event of a change of weather whilst the work is going on, he is to haul down the signal, and, having cleared the boats that may be alongside, to steam to windward of the fleet. No skipper is to send his boat to the carrier with fish unless the signal is actually flying; at the same time, the fact of its flying does not render it compulsory on any skipper to send away his boat. He is to use his independent judgment in the matter. The owner of every smack is required to provide two liferbuoys, and the skipper is required to keep them and " any other life-saving appliances which may be supplied by the owners" at all times fit and ready for use. No skipper is to permit his boat to go to the carrier without having a suitable life-buoy attached by a line to the stern-ring of the boat.

We cannot but earnestly wish that the regulations, so complete in every other way, even to a jackstay along the keel for men to lay hold of if the boat is capsized, made further mention of life-belts than that indirectly implied in the paragraph given in italics. If there is a time in which life-belts are useful in case of a capsize, it is eminently so when the accident occurs in the neighbourhood of other boats or vessels who can render assistance, such as would certainly be the situation in the circumstances we are considering.

Even if it were considered unadvisable to give skippers power to require their men to put life-belts on, the men should at least have the opportunity of doing so, by its being required that one for each man should always be carried in the boats. It is true that possibly this point may have been purposely omitted, as coming within the functions of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Trade, established under the Merchant Shipping Act of this year, whose duty it will be to frame regulations as to the life-saving appliances to be in future carried in British vessels, and we hope this may be so. To ensure the boat being properly managed, the regulations require that either the skipper or second hand (i.e., mate) shall always go in charge of her, and they finish with a note to the effect that any one to whom they apply, not complying with them, incurs a penalty not exceeding 10Z.

In framing these regulations, the Board of Trade had the advantage of the very able report made by Mr. Twiss, stipendiary magistrate of Hull, and Captains Castle and Anderson, of their exhaustive investigation of the subject in all its .bearings held in connection with the inquiry into the loss of two lives, by the capsizing of the boat of the smack Abo of Hull, when " boarding " the carrier Northward, in August 1887.

An immense benefit must accrue to the crews of the North Sea fishing vessels by the convention referred to in the report, and recently entered into by the six powers bordering that sea—viz., England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark—for the suppression of those pests of the sea called " Coopers," or vessels whose nefarious business it was to supply the fishing vessels at sea with spirits. Tradition says they were not particular as to the quality of the goods, nor as to whether they were paid in money, the owners' fish, or the vessels' stores. All this is now prohibited; and all vessels plying in the North Sea for the purpose of supplying provisions and other articles to fishermen must be licensed by their own Government under strict regulations as to not carrying spirits for sale.

The report calls attention to a question well worthy of consideration—especially in these days when the competition in all callings is so keen that success is hopeless to any but masters of their craft. In the inquiry at Hull before alluded to, there was but one opinion expressed by the witnesses as to the efficiency of the younger hands as fishermen; this was to the effect that they had, on this point, deteriorated decidedly during the last six or seven years. This deterioration was not in seamanship or in bodily physique, but in the knowledge and performance of their duties as fishermen, and was attributed to the break-down in the system of apprentices, owing to the entirely altered position between master and apprentice brought about by the Merchant Seamen (Payment of Wages and Bating) Bill that became law in 1880. We often used to hear of the hardness of these boys' lives, the hardships they went through, and the cruel treatment they were subjected to; but we should hope that with the very much closer Government supervision now established and the very general amelioration of manners that is undoubtedly spreading through all classes, such things could not occur now, or at any rate, not nearly to the same extent. Seeing that it must be to the interest of all concerned, more particularly to the owners and masters of fishing vessels, to contribute towards promoting efficiency in the work of the young hands growing up in their calling, we cannot but hope to see greater efforts made to increase the number of apprentices ; for it can hardly be supposed that there are not plenty of boys to be found, especially when it is so hard to find employment for them at home and in the colonies.

One very important Table attached to the Appendix of this Report, is that which gives the number of fishermen lost at sea from fishing vessels belonging to the United Kingdom in each of the last four years. The Table is divided into two parts. The first contains the losses by " wrecks or casualties," and is subdivided again into founderings, strandings, collisions, other casualties, missing vessels.

The totals for the four years, from 1884 to 1887 inclusive, are:—founderings, 110; strandings, 29; collisions, 72; other casualties, 195; and missing vessels, 197.

For the year 1887, the figures are:— founderings, 36; strandings, 9; collisions, 27; other casualties, 78; and missing vessels, 51; thus, in every case but strandings (a small item), the losses in 1887 were considerably above the average.

The second Table is divided into—fell overboard, fell overboard when drawing water, washed overboard, knocked or pulled overboard, or otherwise killed by sails, tackle, etc., drowned from small boat, drowned when fish-carrying, natural causes, suicide. The numbers for the four years—felloverboard.ineladingdrawing water, 164; washed overboard, 90; knocked or pulled overboard, etc., by sails, etc., 57; drowned from small boat 27; drowned when ferrying fish, 52; natural causes, 32.

The figures in this Table for 1887, are respectively, 48, 28, 18, 7, 24, 8, 0, also above the average for the four years.

The totals of the two Tables separately are 603 and 427, making a grand total, after deducting the deaths from natural causes and suicides, only seven short of one thousand lives lost in four years. It would be Utopian to suppose this loss could be completely prevented, but we cannot but think the figures under the first four heads in the second Table, viz., fell, washed, and knocked overboard, amounting in the aggregate to 94 lives last year, might be appreciably reduced.

That a rider in this direction should be made seems also to have been the opinion of Mr. Twiss and his coadjutors at Hull, for they point to these items in the return, and recommend for the East Coast smacks the introduction of a ridge rope and stanchions which could easily be let go when in the way of working their trawls, etc. If we had the details of this return of losses, we think they would probably show that a large proportion of these lives were lost on the coast of Scotland, where the want of protection in the decked fishing-boats is much greater than in the English East Coast smacks to which of course these gentlemen's recommendations more particularly refer..