3-011-976 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Barking carrier collecting fish from the trawl fleet on the Doggerbank, 1864. '...a view of some of the vessels composing the largest fleet engaged in the deep-sea fisheries of Great Britain - that of Messrs. Hewett, of Barking, whose firm has carried on business for nearly a century, and has for many years past furnished Billingsgate Market with its principal supplies of fresh fish...A more exciting scene can hardly be imagined than when a carrier-cutter hoists her flag to take in cargo for market. The boats of the fishing fleet immediately throng around her with their boxes and hampers, rowing many a hard race to see which will reach her first. They hang on to her from bow to stern like a swarm of bees, and packages after packages are literally rained upon her deck, until sometimes she has to make sail and force a passage away from them; for the hardy fishermen have an idea that a carrier never can be overladen, and accordingly pile their packages on board, until it sometimes becomes absolutely dangerous...the boxes and baskets are struck down into the hold and stowed in tiers, between each pair of which a layer of ice is placed to preserve the fish in good condition...they will stow, on average, about forty tons of fish'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.