FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



had a wondrous instinct for telling the turn and run 

 of a tide. This special knowledge proved inestim- 

 ably useful. 



The ancient reputation of the Yarmouth men as 

 fishers was maintained when the smacks were 

 supreme, for the port sent four fleets to sea, includ- 

 ing the famous Short Blue. Three fleets fished 

 between Terschelling and Heligoland ; the East 

 Dogger was worked and the grounds between 

 Schouwen and the Texel. That was in the summer, 

 when the number of hands employed was about 

 2,880 ; in- winter, when the number of hands was 

 reduced to about 2,000, the Short Blues would work 

 at the east end of the celebrated Silver Pits ; the 

 Leleu and Columbia fleets would trawl the Botney 

 Gut, and the Knoll fleet would be herring catching. 



These old fleets were composed of smacks which 

 went out for an eight weeks' or longer voyage, the 

 catches of fish being " ferried " in the smacks' 

 boats to the attendant steam carrier, which kept up 

 communication with London and other markets. 

 This ferrying was perilous work in bad weather 

 and the fleets often suffered heavy loss in life 

 through the deeply-laden boats being capsized or 

 swamped. There was little or no chance for the 

 fisherman, who as a rule could not swim, and wore 

 heavy clothes and very heavy boots, some of the 

 latter reaching to the hip. In this matter of board- 

 ing the trawlerman was largely a fatalist and was 

 accustomed to declare that fishermen were used to 

 being drowned. 



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