FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



" There were several other smacks about, with 

 beam-trawls, like ours, and as completely defence- 

 less as we were. There wasn't a ghost of a chance 

 of doing anything against such an enemy as this — 

 we just had to wait and see what happened. We 

 hadn't long to wait. 



" Almost as soon as I had spotted the submarine 

 he came towards us, and the commander, as I took 

 him to be, who was standing on the platform, 

 shouted to us in quite good English, ' I will give 

 you five minutes to leave your ship !' 



" We chucked the boat out and got into it. We 

 didn't bother to get our clothing or anything ; we 

 daren't, and there wasn't time. We were ordered to 

 go to the submarine, and we pulled to her. 



" When we got alongside three of our fellows 

 scrambled on board, leaving me in the boat, where 

 I was joined by two German sailors who carried 

 bombs in their hands. There were two bombs, one 

 rather like a fair-sized, round, fancy flower-pot, and 

 the other bigger, and jug-shaped, with a handle for 

 carrying. These two men couldn't speak English 

 — at any rate, they didn't say anything to me, and 

 I said nothing to them. They had their orders, and 

 carried them out. 



" The German commander said to me, ' Take 

 these two men back to the smack.' 



" As soon as we were alongside the smack the 

 boat was made fast, and the Germans got on board 

 and went below with their bombs. 



" By this time the submarine had come up, on 



112 



