TRAWLING 



quarters. Along the port (or left-hand) side of the boat 

 is the trawl-net the heavy, iron-runnered beam lying 

 along the deck ; the " cod," or pointed bottom of the 

 net, looped up to the rigging. On examination it is 

 seen that one side of the net's mouth is fastened, all the 

 way down, to the beam and the trawl-heads ; the other 

 is formed by an enormously thick rope the " foot-rope " 

 much longer than the beam itself, to which the first 

 row of meshes on that side is attached. Close by are 

 huge coils of rope which look as though they too ought 

 to belong to the trawl. 



Swish ! A bucket of water eddies round your ankles, 

 and you speedily resolve to postpone your investigations 

 till a more seasonable hour, as an energetic fisher-lad 

 diligently scrubs at the deck with his short-handled broom. 

 Not that it wants scrubbing ; the only marks on it are 

 a few smuts from the chimney of the cabin, where some 

 one is lighting a fire to boil the breakfast kettle ; but the 

 seaman is the cleanest soul on earth, and washes his decks 

 from habit, and his hands twenty times to any other 

 working man's once. 



Somebody calls out that the kettle boils, and the 

 hitherto silent fishermen show signs of growing talkative. 

 In warm weather, or at busy times, they take their meal 

 on deck ; at other times in the cabin, going down by 

 twos and threes, or occasionally with the exception of 

 the man at the helm en masse. The tea has been made 

 in the kettle, and is now poured into iron mugs or 

 gallipots, while a condensed-milk tin is solemnly scrubbed 

 out to serve as a drinking- vessel for that courteous mem- 



34 



