232
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
be traced to have had origin in the old Scandinavian "viking"
boats. There is historical evidence of Danish and Saxon settle-
ments bordering Leigh creek, and the former people were
fishermen at heart.
By easy stages the ships were enlarged. The boats then were
from 18 to 22 feet long and might have 2-4 tons capacity. They
were clinker built, the bow a trifle fuller and rounded in the
stern. There was no windlass, so that the anchor and the net
were raised by hand. Afterwards, as the boats increased in
length and dimensions, the cabin became enlarged, and other
accessories added to them until they became the "square-stern
bawleys".
The first Leigh fishing smack with a square-stern was built
about 1830. Between 1831-40 there were only half a dozen
square-stern in the Leigh fleet. Year by year their numbers
slowly increased, while the proportion of pink-stern declined. Still
a few hung on until the eighties and the last pink-stern, after lying
on the marsh in a derelict condition, was finally broken up in
1894.
The early square-stern bawleys were 4, 5 or 6 tons. Then they
increased gradually to 8, 9, 10 and 12, and a few to 15 tons and
over. Lengths ranged from 24 to 32 feet, with a few running to
38 or 40 feet. Quite a number of them are still in service and
have been equipped with engines. There is also a fleet of new
boats operating mostly from Leigh-on-Sea. These are square-
stern boats of 30 to 33 feet in length, equipped with diesel
engines.
Fishing gear
The beam trawl (Plate 10a) is used exclusively for shrimping
in the Thames Estuary. It was the fishermen of Gravesend and
Barking who adopted it as their method of deep fishing in the
middle of the last century. The Leigh fishermen adopted it
about 1860, and it was mainly used by the trawlers for fishing in
deeper water. Prior to that, 1830-40, the Leigh fishermen used
the "shrimp-net", peculiar to the Thames and its immediate
neighbourhood. This net, which was mainly used for catching
"brown" shrimps in shallower water, had the characteristic
feature of having a second beam parallel to the top beam. There
was no ground-rope as in the ordinary trawl.
Originally the "shrimp-net" had a beam of oak or elm 8 to 10
feet long, a net of 8 to 10 feet in length, with a mesh of 1 inch,
reducing to half an inch at the cod-end. The beam had two
scores cut in it and these were leaded. Parallel to this beam, and
supported by an upright stick of 2 feet in length, inserted in a
hole in the centre of the beam was the upper beam or pole of
about 3 feet in length. The net was fastened to these two beams
or poles, which were kept square by the upright stick, and by
ropes leading from the one to the other at their extremities.
Warps 30 fathoms long were attached to the beam at the mouth