The enforcement of numbers and letters appearing conspicuously on every fishing boat could not be an end in itself. The only value of the numbering system was the ready identification it provided of fishing vessels which may be transgressing fishery regulations. Therefore the numbers had to be tied into some register structure which could answer any question about a fishing boat that may arise, especially her name, the name of the owner and the master and with sufficient descriptive details to ensure that the entry really did
correspond to the vessel with the number.
The first shipping register was created by the Navigation Act of 1786 which required the registration of all British shipping over 15 tonsf This act sought to be able to distinguish British shipping from American shipping for the operation of the Navigation Acts after the War of Independence,^ and not to control the behaviour of the individual vessels. It is rather the control of individuals which required the listing of vessels with sufficient detail to
identify them and their owners and masters. In 1795 a Register of Vessels on Inland Waterways was created^. This register required information about the trading wherries and keels that regularly plied the Norfolk rivers and broads. The register gives each entry a number, (although there is no evidence that this number had to be displayed by the vessel), and a date of registry is noted. The column headings are: Master, Name, Tonnage,
Waterman or Boy, Route and Miles. For example. Number two is the keel “Supply”, first registered on 10th July 1795, of 95 tons with William Empson as master, and John Pile as waterman. She worked the distance of thirty miles from Norwich to Great Yarmouth.
This register was probably a product of the needs of control during wartime. Yet, such a listing of boats with the emphasis on policing rather than providing an instrument of title and tax must be seen as the ancestor of the fishing boat registers. Nevertheless, the shipping registers had considerable influence upon the register system, especially after the introduction of the Sea Ashing Boats (Scotland) Act in 1886. The style of the register introduced in 1786 was mirrored by the 1868 register books. The folios in each are drawn up in columns and the column headings listed across the pages, and these are concerned with the name of the vessel, and her owner and master, and with the descriptive and dimensional details of the ship. The registrars naturally followed similar practices when worldng the registers too. For example an entry is cancelled in both types of register by scoring across the folio in red ink and writing the date and where Icnown the fate of the vessel
The first great Merchant Shipping Act of 18544 introduced the notion of an Official Number carved into the main beam which a registered ship would carry to her grave. This number was unique and unchanging and provided part of the proof of identity of a vessel. It appeared on the registry certificate which acted as a kind of ship’s passport. By contrast the fishing numbers introduced in the Convention Act of 1843 created highly visible reference numbers which did not imply any form of legal title. Only ^ter the Sea Fishing Boats (Scotland) Act was enacted in 1887 were fishing numbers carved into the main beam of fishing boats where they helped to establish title according to that act. The fishing register was adapted by that act to meet the needs of fishermen which had been provided by the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 for British ships. The second great Merchant Shipping Act of
1894joined together the two threads of the shipping and fishing registers.
Prior to the introduction of numbers, letters and registers under the Convention Act 'of 18435, fishing vessels did indeed make use of the merchant shipping registers. The
Kirkcaldy Shipping Register contains entries which almost certainly refer to fishing boats^. For example “Two Brothers Unitatos” built at Anstruther Easter in 1822 was a 34’ two masted undecked lugger. Merchant vessels are distinguishable, such as “Minerva” of Anstruther which was a decked square-stemed brigantine, but many of the boats are clearly lug-rigged open fishing boats.
The Convention Act which passed into law in 1843 specified in article 11 that the details of each boat were to be inserted into the boat licence and “entered in the registry book kept at the collectorship of customs.”7 It is not clear whether this meant the existing shipping registers or a new register. When the registrar at Dundee has to make a report to the Board of Customs in 1858 about the working of the system, he avoids the question of registers
entirely8.A strong local tradition in Anstruther regarding the existence of the town as a port of fishing registry^ may reflect its role in this respect as a shipping registry out-port for ICirkcaldy, which is apparent from the shipping register extracts, rather than as a fishing register port as such. Certainly after the Sea Fisheries Act of 1868 there is no trace of this town as a port of registry.
From 1869 detailed instructions and the appropriate forms were issued to the Customs Officers along with a list of the ports which were to be the places of registry Fishery officers working for the Fishery Board were only required to act as registrars after 1886 when registers were opened in Scottish highland areas where there were few Customs Officers. All registrars were required to keep a register of fishing vessels and give each a number from a consecutive series ^ ^. The owner of every boat had to fill in an application form and, if this was in order, the registrar would enter the particulars into the register and issue a certificate of registry for the boat. This certificate had to be carried on board at all times and shown to a fishery officer whenever required, but it did not carry with it any title
The certificate had to be given up if the boat was moved to a new port of registry, or if the boat ceased to be a fishing boat for any reason. Failure to do so could leave the
registrar in the dark as to the fate of a particular boat. If he did receive information regarding the loss or breaking up of a boat he was empowered himself to close the registry under that number^ A figure for the apparent number of boats coming off the register each year can be calculated by taking the total number of boats reported for the previous year away from the total for the current year, and then taking away the number of new certificates. The product is the number of boats which the Fishery Board are aware have come off the
r e g i s t e r ^ 4 xhe total of certificates in use exceeds the number of boats in 1885. This suggests
that the registrars cannot keep track of all the boats which should in fact have been cancelled from the register. Clearly in a significant number of cases the certificate is not being given up to the registrar when a boat is re-registered elsewhere, or comes to the end of her life. The registry certificate was due to be inspected by the registrar every year^^.
“Once in every year the owner of every boat shall submit his certificate of Registry for examination, either at the head office in each collectorship, or at the station through which it was originally obtained, and the proper officer shall sign his name on the back of the said certificate, together with the date of examination, as a record of its authenticity or correctness.”
As the total number of certificates increased year on year this task must have become onerous. Figure 5 uses data from the Fishery Board Reports to show the percentage of certificates that are declared as endorsed in each year:
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