122 fishermen's memorial and record book. 



The old-time skippers are fast disappearing from the decks of the 

 fishermen. You will find them engaged as fitters-out and owners. 

 Knowing the business in all its branches, it is not to be supposed 

 that they are to follow the hook and line all their lives. No, indeed ! 

 They place their son or some other competent person in command 

 of the craft, and, becoming owners or part owners of other vessels, 

 launch out into the business, and become the solid men of the town, 

 who may be seen at the meetings of the Gloucester Fishermen's 

 Insurance Company, or gathered each evening in the reading-room, 

 discussing the fishing news, and giving their opinion of the market 

 and the prospect of a good year's work. Right well are the}- deserv- 

 ing of their positions, as they have earned them b}'- continued toil, 

 when with their lives in their hands they left the home-port behind 

 and songht for a trip of fish, when the winds howled and the sea beat 

 with its fury against their craft, threatening to swallow it up and 

 bur}-- them far down in ocean depths, where so many of the brave 

 fishermen have found a grave, and the loved ones on shore have 

 waited so pationtl}^ for their return. 



The fishei'men, God bless them, whether on the land or sea ! Theirs 

 is a life of toil ; and although fortune smiles upon them occasion- 

 all}' and sends a good school of fish, j^et they spend hours and hours at 

 the rail, in the bitter cold of winter, waiting for a bite ; — " grubbing," 

 as it is termed, — with a family at home, whom they love as well as 

 any one loves their own ; and the bread of this family depending upon 

 the catch of fish. Oftentimes these fathers will lie awake at night in 

 their berths, tossed up and down by the waves of Georges, hoping 

 that he may do well this trip for the sake of his loved ones who are 

 in need of many things for their comfort. This is no fancy picture, 

 but the earnest facts in the lives of the married fishermen, v,ho pan- 

 not stay at home in winter, because there is bread to win ; and they 

 must win it. All honor to them. Theirs is no holiday existence, 

 but a continued grappling with the elements, a struggle for life, with 

 storm and old ocean in its anger to meet, and with pluck and daring, 

 they wring success from the very verge of the grave. 



