I did not know, but should not be surprised that until about 1938 there were Dutch ships moored in the Thames selling live eels to London.
One Surprised Eel Historian has a nice tread on Twitter on how they were so important that for centuries they’d regularly appeared on maps of London. The boats themselves were special too: “The ships were a well boat…kind of a floating aquarium. The Dutch used them to transport live eels to London from c. 1475 – 1938. There were small holes in the sides of the ship to allow for water flow.” A nice bit of history this, one of those things you never knew had happened but makes complete sense when you learn about it.
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