WAR OX FISHING CRAFT 



of the Vanilla — and it was the courage shown by the 

 skipper of the Fermo and his crew in steaming up 

 to the place where the trawler had been torpedoed, 

 bent on rescue. Fearlessness and skill, those 

 famous attributes of the deep sea men, were shown 

 at their best, and if rescue had been possible, rescue 

 would have been accomplished, in spite of all the 

 infamies of Germany. This fortitude and bravery 

 was not isolated — numberless cases occurred of life- 

 saving by fishermen when losses had been inflicted 

 by vessels of the enemy. In some cases these dis- 

 plays were suitably honoured ; in many instances 

 they had to be added to that long list of good deeds 

 done on the North Sea being their own reward. 



An announcement by the Secretary to the Admir- 

 alty showed that up to March 17, 1915, 28 fishing 

 vessels had been sunk or captured and 19 lost by 

 mines since the war began — making a total of 47. 

 The heaviest losses were in the weeks which ended 

 on August 26 and November 4. In the first-named 

 period no fewer than 24 fishing vessels were lost 

 through the action of enemy vessels of all classes, 

 and in the November week five fishing vessels were 

 lost through mines ; the total gross lost tonnage for 

 the two weeks being 4,141 and 5S3 respectively. The 

 August week was that in which the Germans 

 swooped on the inoffensive fishermen, sank some of 

 the helpless vessels and captured other craft. There 

 was reason to believe that these captured trawlers 

 were afterwards treacherously used by the Germans 

 in mine-laying and covering submarine attacks. 



81 



