FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



in towing and " seeking " on the North Sea — towing 

 being the arranged work, and " seeking " the more 

 precarious, but also more exciting, employment of 

 scouring the seas, especially after a gale, in the hope 

 of picking up a lame duck or some other salvage job 

 or pilotage. 



No pioneer work was ever undertaken without 

 some pessimist predicting speedy and humiliating 

 failure ; and there were those who with gloomy joy 

 foretold the downfall of the first steam trawlers. 

 But to the croakers' confusion these experimental 

 vessels were a prompt and sure success, and to the 

 far-seeing it was clear that they had come to stay 

 and be forerunners of an enormous fleet of steam 

 fishing craft. 



The time soon came when the paddle-boats were 

 laid aside and the screw vessel alone was built for 

 fishing work, some of the most notable of these craft 

 being the strong, seaworthy steam carriers, or 

 " cutters," which ran between the fishing fleets and 

 Billingsgate, from the grounds off Heligoland, the 

 Dogger, and elsewhere, to London River and back, 

 scorning storms, making their appointed runs with 

 almost train-like regularity, and keeping fit and 

 busy the fine, brave, powerful men whose lives were 

 given up entirely to this perilous and heavy work. 



These steam carriers — successors to the actual 

 sailing " cutters " which in earlier days had main- 

 tained communication between the fleets and the 

 markets — were equipped with trawling gear, so that 

 a vessel reaching a fleet in good time could make a 



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