Fish and Naval Forces: The Edwardian Background

This chapter describes Britain as the world's leading military and mercantile maritime nation that possessed the largest and most sophisticated fishing industry during the Edwardian era. It talks about the waters surrounding the British Isles that were home to countless species of fish, many of which were taken by different groups of fishermen in a diversity of locations using a varied range of catching equipment and craft. It also refers to the trawl and herring fisheries of the British fish trade that employed very large numbers of Edwardian fishermen and fishing vessels. The chapter analyzes the British trawling trade that had expanded markedly since the mid-nineteenth century when the construction of the national railway network provided reliable access to inland markets. It details how the railways helped make fresh white fish an article of cheap mass consumption in many burgeoning inland industrial towns and cities.