THE SHRIMPING INDUSTRY IN ESSEX 233
of the net by bridles, these being fastened about a foot from the
end of the beam. Two of such nets were used at a time, one
over the bow, the other over the stern.
Later, in the early fifties, they used a larger beam of 12 feet
long. The net was lengthened to 12 or 14 feet, but the mesh
remained the same. Three nets were worked in this form, i.e.
two of 9 feet beam and one of 12 feet beam in the centre. At the
same period another net was introduced, the "four-beam trawl",
which held its place for nearly half a century. A diagram and a
good description of such a "shrimp-net" was given by Holdsworth
in 1874. The lower beam was 9 feet long, 21/2 inches thick and 31/2
inches wide (Fig. 2), flat above and below. It was weighted with
about 25 lbs. of lead, run into two spaces excavated on the upper
side, and the under-side of the beam was sometimes shod with
iron. The upper beam or pole was 6 feet long, supported by a
stout stick of 11/2 feet long, inserted in the centre of the lower
beam. The net was about 12 feet in length, tapering rapidly to
the cod-end. A three-span bridle from the lower beam and the
top of the central stick was made fast to the warp by which the
shrimp-net was towed. With this size of shrimp-net four were
used at one time. The first (fore) one was from the stem, the
second (fore-middle) from close to the shrouds, the third (after-
middle) from the quarter, and the fourth (aft) from the stern.
The push-net or hand shrimp-net, which was of similar form,
except that it was smaller and lighter, since it required no lead
on the beam was also used at Leigh. It was used by a few
persons, pushing the net amongst the various creeks at low-water,
and the catch was sold for the home market. Push-nets are still
being used at certain places on the south-east coast of England
(Dungeness, Lade, Hythe), and also in other parts of the country.
The shrimp-trawl as now in use, in the Thames Estuary, has
a beam of 18 to 24 feet long, the net is of the usual conical figure
and having a length of 5 to 6 fathoms. The beam is fastened to
the iron heads, which have two beam sockets, one is square and
the other round, the latter allowing the beam to be turned round,
thus facilitating manipulation. The conical-shaped net is fastened
to the beam, and to a thick ground-rope, which in turn is also
attached to the iron heads (Plate 10b).
Distribution of shrimps
Brown shrimps prefer soft muddy sandy bottoms. This kind
of sea bottom is found on the south bank of the River Thames,
from Gravesend to Sheerness and further east, in the River
Medway, and along the Maplin and Barrow Sands. Pink shrimps
are usually found on hard bottom, and where there are colonies
of "ross". These grounds are distributed irregularly in the
Estuary; we find them below Leigh-on-Sea and Sheerness, River
Medway, the bank extending from the Nore Tower to the West
Oaze buoy, and the Kentish Flats. Other areas with similar sea
bottoms are found in the River Crouch, approaches to Rivers