While the Irish boats are diminishing in number, those of the
strangers are increasing. In an East Lothian paper, published in
May 1881, I find the following paragraph, under the head of
Cockenzie:-
"Departure of Boats.--In the early part of this week, a number of
the boats here have left for the herring-fishery at Kinsale, in
Ireland. The success attending their labours last year at that
place and at Howth has induced more of them than usual to proceed
thither this year."
It may not be generally known that Cockenzie is a little fishing
village on the Firth of Forth, in Scotland, where the fishermen
have provided themselves, at their own expense, with about fifty
decked fishing-boats, each costing, with nets and gear, about
500L. With these boats they carry on their pursuits on the coast
of Scotland, England, and Ireland. In 1882, they sent about
thirty boats to Kinsale[8] and Howth. The profits of their
fishing has been such as to enable them, with the assistance of
Lord Wemyss, to build for themselves a convenient harbour at Port
Seaton, without any help from the Government. They find that
self-help is the best help, and that it is absurd to look to the
Government and the public purse for what they can best do for
themselves.
The wealth of the ocean round Ireland has long been known. As
long ago as the ninth and tenth centuries, the Danes established
a fishery off the western coasts, and carried on a lucrative
trade with the south of Europe.
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