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In the years before 1841 many fishing vessels from other places made use of the local harbours, especially Stanley and Aberdeen. An official report from the 1840s refers to the situation:
"I have not inserted under the head of "Fisheries" anything with respect to the large quantities of fish caught off the south side of the Island as the fishing ground being off the Lama Island cannot strictly be claimed on behalf of the Colony. Some of the boats employed in the traffic belong to Stanley and Aberdeen, but the greater number and all those of the largest class (called To-Ku) carrying from 30 to 50 tons belong to various places in the districts of Heangshan and Sinan and merely use these Harbours during the fishing season to take in provisions and water. The fish caught is generally sold to smaller vessels who carry it to different places for sale. About 500 tons are annually dried at Stanley."45
The main fishing in the waters off the South China coast was seasonal, with the main fishing fleets moving up and down the coast with the migrating shoals of fish. The larger vessels would travel up and down the coast, landing their catch at the ports next to the areas being fished and then moving on to the next fishing ground and the next port. The smaller vessels fished the water off their home port all year around, but were particularly busy during the migration season. Thus Stanley and Aberdeen would have been extremely busy and crowded with boats during the two short northward and southward migration periods, when huge quantities of fish would have been landed, to be dried, batched, and exported at leisure during the less hectic normal periods, when only the smaller local boats would be in port.
Though the descriptions of the granite and fish trade here quoted all come from a period shortly after the establishment of British Hong Kong, by which time the salt fish trade had become, as Gutzlaff said, "the most flourishing of all the branches", I believe they are equally applicable to the period before 1841.
It is in connection with this seasonal migration of the fishing fleet up and down the coast that the presence of Chiu Chow, or Hoklo, groups in the little ports makes sense: they were essentially
119
In the years before 1841 many fishing vessels from other places made use of the local harbours, especially Stanley and Aberdeen. An official report from the 1840s refers to the situation:
"I have not inserted under the head of "Fisheries" anything with respect to the large quantities of fish caught off the south side of the Island as the fishing ground being off the Lama Island cannot strictly be claimed on behalf of the Colony. Some of the boats employed in the traffic belong to Stanley and Aberdeen, but the greater number and all those of the largest class (called To-Ku) carrying from 30 to 50 tons belong to various places in the district[s] of Heangshan and Sinan and merely use these Harbours during the fishing season to take in provisions and water. The fish caught is generally sold to smaller vessels who carry it to different places for sale. About 500 tons are annually dried at Stanley."45
The main fishing in the waters off the South China coast was seasonal, with the main fishing fleets moving up and down the coast with the migrating shoals of fish. The larger vessels would travel up and down the coast, landing their catch at the ports next to the areas being fished and then moving on to the next fishing ground and the next port. The smaller vessels fished the water off their home port all year around, but were particularly busy during the migration season. Thus Stanley and Aberdeen would have been extremely busy and crowded with boats during the two short northward and southward migration periods, when huge quanti- ties of fish would have been landed, to be dried, batched, and exported at leisure during the less hectic normal periods, when only the smaller local boats would be in port.
Though the descriptions of the granite and fish trade here quoted all come from a period shortly after the establishment of British Hong Kong, by which time the salt fish trade had become, as Gutzlaff said, "the most flourishing of all the branches", I be- lieve they are equally applicable to the period before 1841.
It is in connection with this seasonal migration of the fishing fleet up and down the coast that the presence of Chiu Chow, or Hoklo, groups in the little ports makes sense: they were essentially
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