CHAPTER III 

 TRAWLING 



"Off" with the boats The start The fisherman's attitude towards 

 strangers An East Coast trawler The net The fisherman at sea 

 Shooting the trawl Special * ' catches " The net hauled up 

 Where the hard work comes in The steam carrier What is done 

 with the catch Steam-trawling Little private ventures. 



TO sea -loving people there is a peculiar charm 

 attaching to the departure, whether by day or by 

 night, of a fishing-fleet. When the boats go off 

 by daylight there is the pleasing bustle and scurry 

 attendant on the putting out to sea of two or three 

 hundred men, all of them robust, healthy, and light- 

 hearted. There is the vivid, continually changing 

 panorama, made up of picturesque costumes, gaily 

 painted boats which are being dragged down the shingle 

 or tossed up and down on the waves in their effort to 

 reach the smacks lying at moorings; the steady rise of 

 the white or brown main-sail as it is hauled up by a 

 couple of men ; finishing with the graceful movement of 

 the vessel herself as she slips her cable and sets off on her 

 little voyage. 



At night the charm is different. It is there all the 

 same ; to the taste of many people it is even intensified. 

 Darkness has taken the place of daylight, and it remains 



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