ready by every 1st of June to sail out of the Maas, the Texel,
and the Vlie, to catch herring in the North Sea, excited admiration,
envy, and almost despair.

"O, slothful England and careless countrymen! look but on these
fellows that we call the plump Hollanders! Behold their diligence in
fishing and our most careless negligence! Six hundred of these
fisherships and more be great Busses, some six score tons, most of
them be a hundred tons, and the rest three score tons and fifty tons;
the biggest of them having four and twenty men, some twenty men, and
some eighteen or sixteen men apiece. So there cannot be in this fleet
of People no less than twenty thousand sailors.... No king upon the
earth did ever see such a fleet of his own subjects at any time, and
yet this fleet is there and then yearly to be seen. A most worthy
sight it were, if they were my own countrymen, yet have I taken
pleasure in being amongst them, to behold the neatness of their ships
and fishermen, how every man knoweth his own place, and all labouring
merrily together.[57:1]

"Now, in our sum of fishermen, let us see what vent have we for our
fish in other countries, and what commodities and corn is brought
into this Kingdom? And what ships are set in work by them whereby
mariners are best employed. Not one. It is pitiful! ... This last
year at Yarmouth there were three hundred idle men that could get
nothing to do, living very poor for lack of employment, which most
gladly would have gone to sea in Pinks if there had been any for them
to go in.... And this last year the Hollanders did lade 12 sail of
Holland ships with red herrings at Yarmouth for Civita Vecchia,
Leghorn and Genoa and Marseilles and Toulon. Most of these being
laden by the English merchants. So that if this be suffered the
English owners of ships shall have but small employment for
them."[57:2]

Nor was the other aspect of the case lost sight of. How can a great navy
necessary for our sea-empire be manned otherwise than by a race of brave
sea-faring men, accustomed from their infancy to handle boats?

"Fourthly, how many thousands of soldiers of all degrees would be by
these means not only hardened well to brook all rage and disturbance
of sea, but also would be well practised and trained to great
perfection of understanding all manner of fight and service of sea,
so that in time of