TRAWLING 



wants to find smooth ground, for only there can the trawl 

 work satisfactorily. 



And what is going on all that distance below our feet ? 

 We talk airily about so many fathoms, without perhaps 

 readily grasping what such a depth means. Imagine a 

 distance nearly four times the length of a cricket-pitch ; 

 that is how deep down our net is lying. The beam, held 

 three or four feet off the ground by its two runners, is 

 riding slowly and easily along ; the foot-rope is scraping 

 over the bottom, disturbing and bewildering the fish, 

 which are scooped up by it before they know where they 

 are; and, finding that they cannot escape above, they 

 never seem to dream of trying to get out the way they 

 came in. 



Although it is an everyday incident in their lives or, 

 rather, an incident which happens a great many times 

 every day and night of their life at sea the trawlers 

 always seem to get up a semi-enthusiasm, a few moments 

 of the breathless excitement of expectation^ when the 

 time comes for hauling in. The older hands no doubt 

 affect a sort of indifference, but the little pleasurable 

 thrill the gambler's "eye to the off-chance" is there 

 for those who can see it. And no wonder; for buried 

 treasure has been brought up on various occasions. Did 

 not some Margate fishermen once pull up a metal pot 

 crammed full of golden guineas ? Moreover, the memory 

 of another, and perhaps more likely, treasure is still 

 green in the minds of the North Sea trawlers. There are 

 men still living who once saw a trawl-net pulled up near 

 the Dogger packed as full as it could be with one of the 



37 



