CHAPTER VII 



HEROIC DEEDS 



The men of the trawlers and drifters who in time 

 of peace had drawn a hard-won living from the deep 

 sea were never prone to talk of what they had seen 

 and done ; and war did not change their silence. In 

 happier times the}' came ashore in little brotherly 

 bands or sta}*ed on board in similar fraternal clus- 

 ters, and made the best of their confinement. 



The fisherman as such was akin to the creatures 

 he pursued and captured, for he, like many of them, 

 foregathered and worked in shoals. He did not 

 amalgamate, and was not to be assimilated. He 

 was largely a worker alone, a species apart, and no 

 ordinary seaman's or mariner's resort attracted him ; 

 he was drawn only by some place which existed 

 solely for the benefit of fishermen. 



This limpet-like attachment of the fisher for his 

 home gave rise to the famous instance of the stranger 

 who inquired in a Buchan coast village for one 

 Alexander White. 



" Could you tell me far Sanny Fite lives?" he 

 asked a girl he met. 



" Filk Sanny Kite?" inquired the maiden, help- 

 fully. 



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