FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



reason why we went to war with Germany ; but we 

 could say nothing. 



" The sailors gave us something to eat and drink, 

 and we could talk, and were pretty free on board 

 the torpedo-boat — she was not a destroyer ; but soon 

 we were to be more strictly treated, and that was 

 when we were transferred to a cruiser. I suppose 

 we were put on board the cruiser because the tor- 

 pedo-boat was not big enough to house us. 



" The cruiser was a tidy size ; she had three fun- 

 nels, but one of them was false. 



" We were put down in the forehold of the ship, 

 and armed guards were posted over us. There were 

 portholes in the sides, but the dead-lights had been 

 fastened down, so that the only light we had was 

 from lamps. We could not, of course, see any- 

 thing ; but we were kept pretty well informed as to 

 what was going on, and in a curious way, for the 

 pilot came down to see us from time to time and told 

 us what was happening. We knew, because we had 

 seen them, that the cruiser carried a lot of mines on 

 her after deck, and the pilot told us that she was 

 going off the English coast to lay them. We after- 

 wards heard that she had thrown them overboard 

 five miles off Blyth and off Flamborough Head ; 

 then the cruiser steamed away for Wilhelmshaven, 

 with other ships. But the Germans were about as 

 much afraid of their own mines as they were of ours, 

 for we heard the cable rattle, and the pilot told us 

 that we had brought up under Heligoland, where I 

 had been ashore many a time in the old days of the 



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