In 1787, twenty boats averaged £105 5s. per boat.
In 1788, twenty boats averaged £93 6s. 6d. per boat.
In 1789, twenty-six boats averaged £98 16s. 2¾d. per boat.
Total amount from 1770 to 1789 inclusive, £49,769 4s. 3½d. [55a]
As soon as the mackarels are brought on shore they are poured upon the beach in heaps, each boat’s by itself. The beach being the place where the fair for the fish is held; here it is that the padders and other purchasers assemble for the purpose of buying them. The fish being thus exposed for sale, are generally sold by private contract, though some times by public auction; formerly by a man appointed by the merchants for that purpose, but now many of the merchants sell their own fish.
The common markets for vending the mackarel are London, and the principal towns in Norfolk and Suffolk, and the adjoining counties; they are sent to the former place in small vessels, called cutters, employed by the fishmongers in London; and to the latter places by carriers, called padders who are employed by the fishmongers belonging to the several towns to which the fish are sent.
There were formerly in this town two other fisheries, called the North Sea and Iceland fisheries. These fisheries were in a flourishing state about the middle of the last century, both here and at Yarmouth. According to Swinden, the number of vessels employed in these fisheries in the year 1644, by the town of Yarmouth only, numbered 205; in the North Sea fishery, 182; in the Iceland fishery, 23; and it was at this time that these fisheries appeared to be in the most flourishing state. Afterwards they gradually declined; for the merchants proving unsuccessful in their voyages, the number of adventurers decreased, and some years after, the fisheries totally ceased. In the year 1740 there was only one boat sent to Iceland from Yarmouth, which appeared to be the last employed in this fishery. At Lowestoft there were about 30 boats sent annually to the North Sea and Iceland; in the year 1720 they were reduced to only five; and in 1748, Mr. Copping, an eminent merchant in this town, was the last person who sent a boat from Lowestoft to the North Seas, which proving unsuccessful, put a final period to these fisheries, they being never attempted afterwards.
The first voyage to these seas was called the Spring voyage; after that was finished they went a second voyage, but returned home again time enough for the herring fishery; but those who were not engaged in the herring fishery, attempted a third voyage. Cod and ling were the principal objects of this fishery, and in a good season would catch about 400 each vessel.
The method of curing these fish was by pickling them in casks, and some dry-salted; which, upon their return home, were exported to foreign parts. The livers of these fish were a considerable article; these they carefully preserved in casks, and the oil they extracted from them was sold to a considerable amount. There is a trench still visible upon the Denes, a little to the north of Lowestoft, in which stood the blubber coppers, where they used to boil the livers of the fish when they returned home from the voyage. They also traded with the natives of Iceland, Shetland, Farra, etc., and imported from hence stockings, blankets, caps, and other articles of the woollen manufactory.
The first decline of these fisheries may be attributed, in a great measure, to the political animosities which subsisted between Yarmouth and Lowestoft, towards the conclusion of the reign of Charles I; for as Yarmouth, during the civil war, took an active part on the side of Parliament, so Lowestoft was as much distinguished for its attachment to the King. In the years 1643 and 1644 the inhabitants of Yarmouth suffered so very much from losses at sea, in having their ships and vessels taken and carried off by armed ships acting in hostility against the parliament, that the town was greatly impoverished, and the fisheries to the North Sea and Iceland much injured. From these circumstances, and the great indulgence allowed the Roman Catholics in foreign parts, in the observance of Lent and other times of abstinence, so prejudicial to fisheries depending on a foreign consumption, the North Sea and Iceland fisheries received so much discouragement, as never to recover it afterwards.