SAILOR FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 85 



Numerous instances of humane acts by fishermen are on record; a volume could be filled in 

 their narration, and we quote here two or three as examples of many : 



About the year 1803 a fishing schooner, commanded l>y (apt. Thomas Dencb, of Gloucester, 

 encountered a heavy gale on George's Bank, in which she was driven from her anchorage and met 

 with some damage, losing among other things a boat. Soon after the gale began to moderate, and 

 while yet the sea was very rough, she fell in with a British vessel in a sinking condition. Not. 

 having any boat, it was a problem how the fishermen could succeed in rescuing the imperiled crew. 

 This they did by taking some of the icehouse planks which were in their vessel's hold and nailing 

 them to the bottom of a gurry-pen.* With this imperfect boat they succeeded in rescuing the crew 

 from the sinking vessel and brought them to Gloucester. For this humane and daring act, per- 

 formed under such difficult circumstances, the captain was awarded a very fine telescope by the 

 British Government. 



The following paragraph, from the Cape Ann Advertiser, April 22, 1881, gives an idea of the 

 nature of the rescues which are frequently made: 



"A DARING DEED— TWO GLOUCESTER MARINERS RISK THEIR LIVES TO RESCUE A COM- 

 RADE. — The two men who went from the schooner Star of the East, Captain Dowdell, to rescue 

 Albert F. Fitch on Brown's Bank on the 3d instant, as narrated in our last issue, were Michael 

 Doyle and Joseph Hackett, and they are deserving of great credit. Fitch was washed overboard 

 while engaged in dressing fish, the schooner being at anchor upon the Bank, and was fortunate 

 enough to catch hold of a shifting plank which was washed overboard, on which he succeeded in 

 keeping afloat for an hour and ten minutes before being picked up. [This is probably an error in 

 regard to time.] It was blowing a heavy gale from the northwest, with a strong tide running to 

 leeward, and any attempt to go to his rescue was fraught with great peril. But, unmindful of the 

 serious risk, Doyle and Hackett jumped into an old dory and started away before the wind and sea 

 to rescue their imperiled comrade. After they got him on board of their frail boat they found it 

 absolutely impossible to return to their vessel, but succeeded in boarding the schooner Joseph O., 

 which was also lying at anchor on the Bank. It took some three hours of constant labor, after 

 arriving on board the Joseph O., to resuscitate Fitch, and the three men remained on board the 

 latter vessel from Sunday night until Tuesday afternoon, when the Star of the East was signalized 

 and ran down and took the men on board." 



The Cape Ann Advertiser, of the same date, also contains the following note: 

 " Recognition of bravery. — Collector Babson has received the sum of $150 from the Massa- 

 chusetts Humane Society, to be handed over to the crew of the fishing schooner Laura Sayward, 

 of this port, for their heroic conduct in rescuing the crew of the British schooner Maggie Blanche, 

 in the midst of a furious gale on George's last September. Two of the crew, James Lord and Dean 

 Crockett, who went in a dory and took off the captain and mate of the Maggie Blanche, who were 

 lashed to the wreck, will also receive the medals of the society. It will be remembered that the 

 men named have also received handsome watches from the British Government in recognition of 

 their bravery. The Maggie Blanche, was bound from Digby to Barbadoes ; her owner, who was on 

 board, and two of her crew, were drowned. The master, Capt. John C. Winchester, and mate, 

 Thomas Lewis, were lashed to the deck when the wreck was discovered by the Laura Sayward. 

 Capt. James Moore, master of the latter vessel, finding that the wreck- was likely to sink before 

 the men could be rescued, promptly cut his cable to allow his vessel to drift, and Crockett and 

 Lord put off in a dory, at the risk of their lives, and succored the imperiled mariners." 



* A gurry-pen is an oblong pen on the deck of the vessel, usually 12 feet by 4 or 5 feet, and without any bottom, 

 which is secured to the deck by lashiugs. In this is put the oft'al of the fish, or fish-gurry, while the vessel is on I lie 

 Bank. 



