WAR ON FISHING CRAFT 



for them any immunity or safety, and with several 

 smacks that disappeared the crews perished. It 

 spoke well for the kindness and devotion of the 

 survivors that three of them began to make a collec- 

 tion for the women and children who had been 

 widowed and orphaned, and by this method they 

 collected nearly £71 ; other efforts increasing the 

 amount to over ^110. This money was carefully 

 administered over a period of a year, and it was 

 employed in helping three widows and sixteen chil- 

 dren whose menfolk had been lost with a smack that 

 sailed from the same port and was torpedoed. 



These tragedies emphasised the dangers that were 

 consistently faced by men who were fishing in what 

 might reasonably have been looked upon as " safe " 

 zones. 



Repeated attempts were made by German airships 

 at sea to destroy British fishing vessels. These 

 airships often hovered over the North Sea, in carry- 

 ing out their reconnoitring work. As a rule they 

 had a wholesome dread of British warships, but they 

 seemed to have a singular partiality for trying to 

 destroy small unarmed vessels, and many stories 

 were told of escapes from these aerial attacks which 

 were due to the coolness and resource of the fisher- 

 men. 



On one occasion incoming trawlers at Grimsby 

 reported that they had sighted four Zeppelins 

 hovering over the North Sea, apparently waiting for 

 dusk before attempting a raid on England. 



One of the airships was seen to bear the mark 



83 



