FISHERMEN IN 

 WAR TIME. 



CHAPTER I 



THE RAW MATERIAL 



The Great War brought the fisherman, especially 

 the toiler of the deep sea, into his own, and put him 

 in the forefront of that mighty naval power on 

 which, in the good providence of God, the safety 

 not of England only but the whole civilised world 

 depended. It saved him from obscurity and gave 

 him that honoured place in public life from which 

 for many generations he had been unjustly kept. 

 Some such cataclysm as the war was needed to call 

 adequate attention to the fisherman, for he was by 

 nature incapable of singing his own praises or 

 claiming his due. 



There were few, even amongst those to whom the 

 toilers of the deep had been a life-long study, who 

 anticipated the vast development in the employment 

 of the fisherman and his craft for purposes of war ; 

 naval authorities themselves were not able to fore- 

 cast that growth, and to the world at large the ex- 



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