We sleep - just not at the same time as you!!!
FISHING VESSELS ~
As with other shipping, no attempt was made to enumerate fishing vessels in 1841. The surviving accounts of the 1851 census are not detailed enough to reconstruct the position in that year. The 1851 ship's schedule, how-ever, asked the master to state if his ship was employed in the home trade, conveying passengers, or fishing. Fishing vessels may, therefore, have been treated in the same manner as other vessels.
In 1861 fishing vessels were to be given ships' schedules if they were in port on 4 April, or arrived between then and census day 7 April. But whereas all British coasting and home-trade vessels arriving up until 7 May were also to be given a schedule, only fishing vessels arriving up until 20 April were to be so treated. Fishing vessels were handled in a similar manner in 1871 and 1881, except that in the period before census night they were now treated in a similar manner to other vessels. Whilst other British vessess arriving in port after census night were given ships' schedules from 3 April to 2 May in 1871, and from 4 April to 3 May in 1881, fishing vessels only received them up until 14 and 15 April respectively. In 1891 and 1901, however, British fishing vessels, and 'every fishing boat of foreign nationality which brings fish regularly to ports of the UK', were to be treated in the same manner as other vessels. This simplification of procedures corresponds to that for the enumeration of other vessels in this period.
The distribution amongst the household returns of the ships' schedules for fishing vessels is similar to that for other shipping.
VESSELS ENGAGED IN INLAND NAVIGATION ~
Persons on vessels engaged in inland navigation which came into the areas of ports and harbours under the jurisdiction of the customs officers, were treated by them in the same manner as fishing vessels. The only exception to this was in 1851, when the customs officers merely forwarded to London the vessel's name, description and port where returned, as well as the number of males and females on board.
The population of vessels on canals and inland navigable waters was treated in a rather different manner. No attempt appears to have been made to make a nominal enumeration of these vessels in 1841 and 1851. Enumerators were merely asked to calculate the numbers of males and females on such vessels and insert this figure in one of their preliminary tables. In 1841 application was also made to the canal companies to provide an estimate of the number of such people.
From 1861 onwards some attempt was made to enumerate this floating population, and a calculation of the number of such persons was no longer supplied by the enumerators. The arrangements for 1861 were extremely ad hoc. The registrar was to enumerate vessels within his sub-district 'according to the circumstances of each case'. He was advised to find where such vessels might be moored from the owners or managers of wharves, or the canal companies, and then to employ a 'trustworthy person' to visit them on census morning to obtain the necessary nominal information using the standard ship's schedule of that year. These returns can now be found at the end of the household returns for the enumeration district, or registration sub-district, in which the vessel lay on census night.
From 1871 onwards it became the responsibility of the enumerators to enumerate such vessels. They handed the person in charge of the vessel a ship's schedule, and collected them when completed. The information they contained was then entered into their enumerators' books at the end of the household entries. From 1881 this applied not only to vessels which had been given schedules prior to census day but also to barges and the like which appeared in the enumeration district on that day.
Annie