Seining 



ating with undulations of the bottom, its gigantic wings closing 

 upon the consternation of the fish so that it must have seemed like 

 some huge bird of prey stepping delicately backwards and closing 

 its wings as it did so. By now the winch was a roaring windmill 

 of salt spray and the coils of the ropes coming in so fast that Jan 

 was hard pressed in his job of turning them over out of the way as 

 each came to the splice that indicated its end. The fish were still 

 moving away from the ropes but the ropes on the bottom were 

 lying close together, making a running lane of fish traffic. More 

 and more of the fish were escaping, some over the ropes, some by 

 speeding ahead of the net, some by being swept accidentally past 

 the outside of a Dan Leno, for the wings of the net were now 

 folded and it filtered little water. 



The wings themselves came into view, a long inverted U of 

 aluminium floats on the surface shearing out of the green and white 

 of the wake. Jan Wcis now at the stem of the boat. Jerzy snapped 

 open the bar that locked the ropes in their rollers as the winch 

 behind them snored to a full stop ; and Jan leaned over to get a 

 grip on one of the Dan Lenos. The main engine was cut and the 

 April Morning soon lay athwart her catch. The light wings were 

 manhandled aboard and then the cod-end was winched up over the 

 side. A splash, and a pool of kicking fish, a few clams and razor 

 shells, but no buzzers, no tatties, no weeds. They had somehow 

 managed to keep to the soft sand, avoiding any areas of rock or 

 boulders that there might have been. They had, indeed, been very 

 lucky since none of them knew these grounds well enough for 

 there to have been anything like skill in it. And, if that net and 

 these ropes had been mashed by heavy gravel or cut by an ancient 

 wreck, they would have found themselves in a very precarious 

 economic position. 



They had been lucky three times over, for the catch was a good 

 one, three kits of haddock, two of whiting, and half a basket 

 of plaice. And they had only just begun. Small fish, of course, 

 very small in Jan's eyes. He had grown accustomed to the Faroe 

 haddock. They were usually about two feet long, and these were 



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