Fishing vessel(circa 1768); Herring buss

Full hull model of a herring buss, a sailing fishing vessel, built at a scale of 1:48. The model is rigged with the sails set and is flying the red ensign. Commissioned by the Museum, it was built from the lines plan and deck lay-out of an English herring buss as published in Chapman’s ‘Architectura Navalis Mercatoria’ (1768) and represents one of the first of the fleet of English herring busses to break the Dutch monopoly of the North Sea herring fisheries. Early English busses followed the Dutch practice regarding the rigging and sails, until they had mastered the technique of drifting for herring in the open sea.

The model shows the buss under full sail as it would have appeared when voyaging to or from the fishing grounds. Once on the grounds, the sail would be lowered and the nets laid over the side. The vessel would drift with the nets for a length of time before they were hauled to recover the catch. Full details regarding the construction of the model are given in an article by Alistair Brown, the model maker, in ‘Model Shipwright’ (no.40, June 1982, pp. 54-58).