272
THE SEAS
'
for two or three weeks.
In olden days the shermen,
_
having torely on sail alone; could not venture too far
from their harbours, because of the time required to return
to port and the consequent difculty of keeping their -
catches fresh.
But with the advent
of steam vessels
.
carrying large supplies of ice the shermen have gone
further and further aeld, until now they range from
Iceland and the White Sea in the north, to the Moroccan
coast in the south.
In consequence the steam ship has
largely superseded the sailing vessel.
But the picturesque
brown—sailed trawlers
and
smacks are still to be seen
sailing from BriXham, Plymouth and Lowestoft._
The type of ship used in these deep—sea sheriès is ‘
dependent upon the.kind of sh that it is required to catch,
whether it. be sh living upon the sea. bottom, demersal
sh, or
those that roam the water layers above the bottom,
pelàgic sh. ’For the former, the bottom sh, the vessel
in general use is known as the trawler ; for the latter, the
drifter ;
each type being specially designed and equipped
for the kind of gear it uses to ensnare the—sh.
_
TRÀWLING
,
'
The steam traWlers are the larger of the two, and they
vary slightly in size according to' the grounds they frequent,
the vessels required Ior long voyages to such rough and
-
inhospitable waters as the Arctic seas being the larger
and
more” powerful, In general they range between
_
120 and 200 feet in length, and an innovation in recent years
has been the introduction of Diesel m0tor engines to re—
place
steam power, especially on…the Continent.
Many
vessels are also equipped with plant for—rendering
sh—livers for the extraction of oil.
'
,
.
—
The following are the -main‘ requirements "of a steam
trawler:
low freeboard t0—help 'in the hauling-of the net
‘