THE RAW MA'lERIAL 



waters were in not a few respects the opposites of 

 the breed which shares the Flamborough headland 

 with the sea-birds and sometimes, when the sea 

 gives up its dead, finds a resting-place in the old 

 churchyard. There many a fisherman has been 

 buried, as quaint epitaphs show, amongst them that 

 on William Brown, " who suffered in Bridlington 

 Bay, 30th October, 1S07," and John Thompson, also 

 a fisherman, who was drowned on January 10, 

 1S14 : — 



From home he went with mind most free, 



His livelihood to gain at sea ; 



He ne'er returned, a furious wave, 



Cast him into a watery grave ; 



A grave in motion termed the deep, 



Left child and widow for to weep. 



On the Eastern seaboard there were few grounds 

 the fishing of which did not involve the constant 

 peril of the North Sea, though on the Channel 

 shores and Western coast there were localities in 

 which these toilers had comparative immunity. But 

 whatever the local circumstances might be, the 

 spirit was the same, and undaunted courage and 

 endurance in rescuing shipwrecked people was 

 shown by fishermen, for they mostly manned the life- 

 saving craft. During a very heavy gale in Decem- 

 ber, 18S6, the Southport lifeboat was capsized in 

 the attempt to rescue the crew of the Mexico, and 

 all the crew except two men were drowned. The St. 



15 



