WAR ON FISHING CRAFT 



men's home-coming for Christmas ; and the mine- 

 sweeper Night Hawk was lost on Christmas Day. 

 By that time 123 fishermen were prisoners of war in 

 Germany and were learning too well what it meant 

 to fall into the power of people whose creed was that 

 of blood and iron and its resultant " f rightfulness." 



What some of these losses meant was shown by 

 the case of James Coleman, deck-hand of the 

 Balmoral. She left Grimsby on January 23, 1915, 

 and was never heard of. Coleman left eight chil- 

 dren. In the previous November a son of his was 

 killed while fighting for his country in France, and 

 not long before that another son was washed over- 

 board from a trawler and drowned. So, in the 

 course of a few months death had claimed the father 

 and two sons — and the eldest son also was serving 

 as a soldier. 



Such losses were not uncommon. They were 

 crushingly severe ; but the heavy burden was greatly 

 lightened by the knowledge that the men had fallen 

 in a good fight, and the practical sympathy which 

 was shown by the public, which was beginning at 

 last to understand how vast a debt it owed to fisher- 

 men of every sort. 



An illustration of German " f rightfulness " was 

 afforded by the loss of the Grimsby trawler Vanilla, 

 which was destroyed by a German submarine, her 

 entire crew of nine being lost with her. The tragic 

 tale of her sacrifice was told by the skipper of 

 another Grimsby trawler, the Fermo, which was in 

 the company of the Vanilla. The skipper said that 



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