FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



the war gave a thorough training of the skippers and 

 fishermen who were called upon to apply them to the 

 work of sweeping the seas clear of mines and to the 

 task of netting or otherwise dealing with enemy 

 submarines. 



In addition to the two great classes of vessels 

 which have been described, the steam trawlers and 

 the steam drifters, there were enormous numbers of 

 other vessels like the Scotch luggers and the craft 

 which went long-lining from East coast, particularly 

 Yorkshire, ports. These liners were very often old 

 yawls whose crews, working from their small boats, 

 ran great risks at sea in thick weather. They had 

 a valuable knowledge of the North Sea and its many 

 peculiarities. 



The Scotch herring men were a race apart, for 

 they were a combination of the crofter and the 

 fisher, following the summer fishing down the East 

 coast, where ports were densely packed with their 

 shapely, handy vessels at the height of the herring 

 season, when large numbers of Scotch " lasses " 

 took an important share in the industry. 



Just before the war broke out the herring fishery 

 had begun and was in full progress in those northern 

 regions where, so soon, the Grand Fleet was to take 

 up its battle position and form the mightiest pro- 

 tection that had ever been afloat. At that period, 

 somewhere in the northern mists, nearly a thousand 

 steam drifters were assembled for the herring fish- 

 ing, ready in due season to go south ; but many of 

 them went north and east and west as well, to play 



34 



