Living Silver 



cuprisol. Incessantly they tried new gears, new rigs, experiment- 

 ing, experimenting, trying always to bring more fish out of the 

 depleted stock on their home grounds. But the catches continued 

 to diminish. 



For the first three months, the April Morning landed regularly in 

 Peterhead. Jan married about that time and the herring season 

 began. On this first year the four Poles did not attempt to go after 

 herring, but the clutter of boats and birds in their home port made 

 it impossible as a market for white fish. So they shifted their 

 ground and began landing at the more northerly port of Buckie. 

 It was not such a safe harbour, much shallower, and exposed to a 

 north-easter, but the herring season coincided with midsummer 

 and the April Morning drew only four feet of water. Transport 

 costs tended to lower prices but there were fewer seine boats op- 

 erating. So they were compensated all round. 



They heard stories from the herring grounds, failure at Shetland, 

 mediocrity around Fraserborough, and the success off East Anglia. 

 With luck a man might make enough money in one night to keep 

 him for a year. Three hundred crans in a dozen hours, fifteen 

 hundred pounds. And then again he might lose a fleet of nets, 

 fifteen hundred pounds the other way. It was a chancy business. 

 When they had the new ship, next year, they would try their hand. 

 Meantime, they took turn about at sailing on a drifter to accustom 

 themselves to the technique. They employed a student to take 

 the vacant berth on the April Morning. His subject was Zoology 

 and he explained to Jan the ways of the strange weeds that some- 

 times came up with the net. He told him of the relationship be- 

 tween the various species of fish. Jan became interested. 



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