been out fishing.

But additional to these comparatively large vessels there were smaller
craft--open boats, yawls, and little sloops--which in fine weather
were wont to run across from the south coast of England to Boulogne,
Guernsey, and from the west of England to the Isle of Man. They also
loaded up with as much cargo as they could carry, and, since they were
able to be beached, the process of discharging their contents as soon
as they returned was much simpler. These smaller craft also were in
the habit of running out well clear of the land and meeting Dutch
vessels, from which they would purchase similar kinds of goods and run
them in by the usual methods. In these lesser craft were frequently
carried a great many stones, anchors, and heavy weights by means of
which the half-ankers of brandy could be sunk near the shore and
afterwards taken up as required. The exact way in which this was done
we shall discuss fully in a later chapter.

Some of the cobbles, "hovelings," and small fishing craft that were
accustomed to run out to big sailing merchantmen under pretence of
shipping pilots to take them into the next port, were actually engaged
in smuggling all sorts of goods out of these ships. Perhaps it was a
lurking sympathy with the men engaged in a trade with which his
earlier years had been so intimately associated that made Captain
Cockburn suggest that it was because the Dutchmen brought such large
quantities of fish into Billingsgate that the English fishermen found
their work unprofitable, and were accordingly driven to devote
themselves to smuggling. But from evidence in other documents it would
certainly seem that Cockburn was speaking the truth and that the
fishing industry was not a very good livelihood at that time.