THE EAST COAST. 247 



assemble for prayers, and the captain or mate performs divine service. After sunset the men 

 meet again for prayers. With the exception of the services, the routine on week days is the 

 same as on Sunday. The captain and mate take turn and turn a month on board and a month 

 on shore ; the men do duty for two months on board for one on shore ; and, monotonous as 

 their life may seem to the uninitiated, it is doubtful whether there is not a beneficial moral 

 activity in existence on a floating light that tends to elevate the character of both officers and 

 men. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



SKETCHES OF OUR EAST COASTS : NORFOLK YORKSHIRE. 



Harwich ; its fine Harbour Thorpeness and its Hero Beautiful Situation of Lowestoft Yarmouth ; its Antiquity Quays, 



Bridges The Roadstead Herring and Mackerel Fishing Curing Red Herrings and Bloaters A Struggle for Life- 

 Encroachments of the Sea A Dangerous Coast Flamborough Head Perils of the Yorkshire Fisherman's Life" The 

 sea gat him ! " -Filey and its Quiet Attractions Natural Breakwater A Sad Tale of the Sea Scarborough ; Ancient 

 Records The Terrible and the Gay The Coupland Helpless -Lifeboat out Her men thrown out Boat crushed against 

 Sea Wall Two Killed Futile Attempts at Rescue A Lady's Description of a Scarborough Gale Whitby Robin 

 Hood's Bay An Undermined Town. 



PROCEEDING now to the east coast of our island, we come to a series of places interesting 

 to the men of the sea, and some of them renowned as watering-places. Leaving the mouth of 

 the Thames, we soon arrive at Harwich, which is acquiring considerable importance in view 

 of the Continental routes with which it is connected. It is situated on high land at the 

 mouth of the Stour, and near the confluence of the latter with the Orwell, immediately 

 opposite the well-known Landguard Fort. The shore is bold, and the views of the German 

 Ocean, with its ever-shifting fleets of native and foreign vessels, are grand and extensive. 

 It has a breakwater, dockyard, and magnificent harbour, in which, it is said, more than 

 100 vessels of the Royal Navy and between 300 and 400 colliers have ridden at one time. 

 There are steamers constantly plying to Ipswich, about twelve miles up the Orwell a river 

 famous for the beautiful scenery of its banks. Ipswich itself, celebrated as the birthplace of 

 Cardinal Wolsey, is the largest market town and port of Suffolk, and possesses respectable- 

 sized docks and ship-yards, and any quantity of interesting buildings of the medieval period. 



Thorpeness, a dreary little place near Aldborough, on our way up the coast, would not 

 attract the tourist, but it was long the residence of one of Suffolk's heroes. Joseph Chard 

 commenced life as a carpenter, but was soon found at Thorpeness, where he lived in a little 

 cottage built by himself, and owned an old boat, which cost him originally fifty shillings, in which 

 he followed the calling of bumboatman, or purveyor of provisions and odds and ends to passing 

 ships, from which he frequently conveyed messages to shore. Gradually he saved moiie} 7 ", 

 and, uniting his old and new trades, built a fine boat, which cost him twenty-five pounds. In 

 three or four years more he was rich enough to purchase a fast-sailing yawl, which a gang of 

 smugglers were obliged to relinquish about that time, and with which Chard won the prize 

 at the next Aldborough Regatta from a host of born watermen. Not content with these 

 successes, he bought and studied a coasting-book and chart, and soon emerged a full-Hedged 



