FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



The inshore fishers were the remote successors of 

 the wild races in ancient Britain who in their primi- 

 tive canoes and coracles fished the estuaries, lakes 

 and rivers, and in course of time went seaward in 

 stouter craft. When war broke out there were still 

 to be found, in Western waters, people who employed 

 the coracle in pretty much the same shape and way 

 as the ancient Briton, and there were, at various 

 places remote from railway stations, methods of 

 conveyance of fish in use which were almost as 

 primitive as the coracles. A woman's head would 

 support a basket of fish, or a donkey's panniers be 

 filled ; and woman and beast would have a long, 

 rough journey to make before the selling-place of 

 the fish was reached. The woman took this burden- 

 bearing as much a matter of course as the donkey 

 did, for both had been born to it. In a princelv 

 place like Edinburgh the quaint old fishwives could 

 be seen, crowned with great loads ; and at Flam- 

 borough Head, far from a railway station, the 

 patient ass climbed the rocky pathways with his 

 panniers. 



The inshore fishers carried on their calling in a 

 way that differed altogether from the methods of the 

 deep sea men. They were essentially home-birds, 

 making short trips to sea, trips of seldom more than 

 a few hours' duration, day or night, and always 

 with a good prospect of getting back to port in case 

 of bad weather. But the deep sea man's home was 

 his sailing smack or steam trawler, and many perils 

 and sufferings were stolidly endured by toilers in 



18 



