In 1815, with a supply of quality fish assured for the high-priced markets like the West End, and the tremendous growth of population and commerce that followed the peace with France, what the fishing industry now had to supply was quantity. It was the devilish wondyrchoun, that had caused such a lot of trouble three and a half centuries before, which filled the need. The power of sail was now sufficient to haul a large trawl along the sea-bed, scooping up fish as it went. Tt was developed simultaneously in Barking and Brixham, and both claim credit for its invention. It seems likely that Barking men adapted the idea very early from the oyster dredge used by the Romans. But Brixham men took the idea from Dutchmen, who came over with William of Orange when he landed there in 1668. The Brixham trawl was larger than that used in Essex, the mouth of the net being held open by a thirty-foot beam of elm which slid over the ground on curved iron runners like those of a sled. With the bright, clear water and the enormous swells of the open Atlantic on their doortep, Brixham fishermen developed vessels and fishing gear of great strength while Essex men, fishing a shallow sea of cloudy waters, hidden shoals and short, steep waves achieved much Brixham in Devon had been a fishing port at least since the Domesday Book, supplying fish inland to Exeter, Bristol and Bath. It is probably unique in that for more than a thousand years it has always been a fishing port, never a commercial one, and even in recent times has survived the tourist boom with its identity and fish quays modified and modernised, but intact. In 1785 the picturesque little harbour already had seventy-six large decked trawlers, each of twenty to twenty-five tons. Every day fish were sent inland by horse van but the cost of transport was great and it was only the shortage of fish during the Wars with France that allowed it to be competitive. With peace in 1815 the price dropped alarmingly so Brixham trawlers moved eastwards to be nearer London, sailing from ports such as Dover and Ramsgate. Fishing banks in the Straits yielded rich hauls of sole that could be sent by fast mail to London where it became a popular and fashionable dish.