FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



least some tinge of pity for the helpless toilers of the 

 deep whom he was ruthlessly destroying. For cruel 

 deliberation and pitilessness nothing could exceed 

 this appalling crime, one of many like it. There 

 was the peaceful Sunday, the inoffensive, unarmed 

 fishing vessel at M r ork, the unsuspecting crew ; yet 

 up to such the submarine made its deadly way, 

 fired its annihilating weapon, and shattered a 

 ship and blew to pieces nine gallant, hard-work- 

 ing men, making already heavily-burdened women 

 widows and dependent children orphans. It was in 

 this direction especially that these murders told 

 distressingly on the fishing community — at about 

 that period another Grimsby trawler, the Horatio, 

 was torpedoed and lost with all hands. She carried 

 a crew of fourteen, of whom no fewer than eleven 

 were married. 



For these infamies, which for ever blackened and 

 degraded the name of German seamen, there was not 

 and could not be any excuse except that of the neces- 

 sity which knew no law. Germany made it clear 

 that she had deliberately thrown to the winds all the 

 restraint which humanity and honour impose on 

 belligerents ; she sank to depths which had never 

 been plumbed even by Goths and Huns — the veneer 

 of civilisation slipped easily off this parvenu amongst 

 the nations. The Germans announced that as part 

 of their naval plan of campaign they would proceed 

 against fishing vessels with even greater energy than 

 before, and they kept their dishonourable word. 



One glorious spot shone in that Sunday tragedy 



80 



