42 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
in the North Sea, so that the distance to be traversed is 
considerable before the Great and Little Silver Pits, the 
Well Banks or Rodney Gut can be reached. 
Most of the trawlers work in fleets, each under the com- 
mand of an admiral, who by means of signals directs the 
routine of the fishery. 
The nightly round of trawl work throughout the fleet is 
pretty much as follows: at sunset, as a rule, as soon as the 
signal is given, the work of trawling begins by the net being 
let overboard. It is a gigantic chamber of horrors: for the 
fish, when once engulfed within its capacious maw, cannot 
easily escape, while allthat are captured are kept—great and 
small, prime and offal, a circumstance which, we may be 
allowed to state in passing, is- much to be regretted, as the 
smaller fishes ought to be allowed to escape. The heaving of 
this gigantic net overboard is of course a comparatively easy 
matter ; not so the getting of it on board. When the trawl 
has been placed the men partake of supper; and the crew, 
except one man, go to sleep for a few hours, till the signal 
is given to begin work. It is usually about eleven o’clock 
when the admiral sends up a rocket to announce that the 
nets of the fleet must be once more got on board. This is 
labour of an exhausting kind. The writer has known three 
hours elapse before the ponderous machine has been got on 
board all right, the men working away with all their power 
of will and strength of muscle. The trawl, as soon as it is 
hoisted on deck, is emptied of its piscine riches, which on 
some occasions, when fortune has been more than usually 
favourable, make a formidable display of fine fish ; but the 
fishermen have no time to expend in admiration. Many 
a naturalist however would really enjoy the scene, and be 
delighted with the crowd of curious creatures of quaint 
