FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



Centuries before the Armada enterprise there had 

 come to the East coast of England, from Jutland 

 and the neighbouring islands, the barbarians who 

 were called Goths, predecessors of the modern Huns, 

 and they found the East coast so much to their 

 liking that they settled there as much as they were 

 allowed to do. Their successors would fain have 

 done likewise ; but the English people would have 

 none of them ; and that was the message which was 

 given to them when British fishermen answered the 

 call to arms and rallied to the service of their 

 country under the White Ensign. 



When the Armada came, when England was in 

 peril, the fiery signal flashed throughout the land. 

 In response to it the mariners of all sorts gathered 

 in their might, and from that hour the Spanish 

 enterprise was doomed. So when the challenge for 

 world supremacy was flung to the world and was 

 taken up unhesitatingly by Great Britain, with 

 other defenders of right and freedom ; when the 

 Germans at the outset sowed their deadly mines 

 broadcast, the skilled, brave men of the deep sea 

 rallied to their country's call. They put at their 

 country's service that priceless knowledge which 

 they had gained from life-long toil on fishing-banks, 

 working their drifting or trawling gear, sweeping 

 up the fish as, later, they were to sweep up the far- 

 scattered mines of Germany. 'In doing that they 

 helped largely towards the preservation of the Navy 

 and the merchant shipping, on which the food sup- 

 ply of the British people depended and without 



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