nine o'clock
These nets are tied to one another , and paid out at the stern of the boat . Boat and nets drift with the tide ; if , therefore , the nets touched the rocks they would be torn to pieces , and the fisherman ruined . And this saves the herring -- that fish lies hours and hours at the very bottom of the sea like a stone , and the poor fisherman shall drive with his nets a yard or two over a square mile of fish , and not catch a herring tail ; on the other hand , if they rise to play for five minutes , in that five minutes they shall fill seven hundred boats . At nine o'clock all the boats had shot their nets , and Christie went alongside his lordship 's cutter ; he asked her many questions about herring fishery , to which she gave clear answers , derived from her father , who had always been what the fishermen call a lucky fisherman ; that is , he had opened his eyes and judged for himself . Lord Ipsden then gave her blue lights to distribute among the boats , that the first which caught herring might signal all hands . This was done , and all was expectation . Eleven o'clock came -- no signal from any boat .