Romances of Fishermen and Sailors: Whipping the Hake

WHIPPING THE HAKE. IT is not improbable that the saying applied to the people of one of the Cornish fishing-towns, of" Who whipped the hake?" may be explained by the following:-- "Lastly, they are persecuted by the hakes, who (not long silence) haunted the coast in great abundance; but now being deprived of their wonted bait, are much diminished, verifying the proverb, 'What we lose in hake we shall have in herring'." - Carew, Survey, p. 34. Annoyed with the hakes, the seiners may, in their ignorance have actually served one of those fish as indicated.