The steady rain which set in on Monday from mid-morning did nothing, by all accounts, to cool the tempers of two of our fishermen, who came to hot words at Herring Quay at midday. Nathaniel Okes and Josiah Brant, whose contention over the net pitch off Spurn Point has now run three seasons, were heard at length by all within earshot, Okes being reported to have taxed Brant with “three seasons of brass-necked thievery.” The charge was delivered in a voice by no means under restraint, and though no blows were offered on either side, the quarrel was not soon smoothed over.
The pitch in question lies off Spurn Point, and both men claim the right of it by long custom of the fishery. The town has had occasion before now to remark that a winter of cold looks between the two houses is no small matter in a parish of this size, and Monday’s exchange will do nothing to shorten it. Whether any authority of the port will be called upon to settle the point we cannot say; those who were present report only that the words were carried off by the rain, and that the men parted without further heat.
The morning’s fishery, it should be said, had passed off peaceably enough, the several boats having come in from the grounds while the water was still clean. Whatever the rights of the pitch, the town’s table was better served by the day’s honest work before the weather turned than by the afternoon’s argument. By the time the quarrel was done, the Fen Path was already mire.