CHAPTER XI 



KEEPING THE TRADE ROUTES CLEAR. 



" I am in a mine-sweeper. We just have to sweep 

 the seas every day, keeping the trade routes and 

 passages clear of mines, so that the merchant ships 

 can arrive and leave our ports in safety." So wrote 

 a fisher lad at the end of three years of war, and 

 he summed up part of the most vital work of 

 the sweepers, " keeping the trade routes clear." 

 " It's not a very nice job," he explained. " We are 

 away from home for so long. It's a very rough 

 life." Then the fisherman's philosophy came to his 

 rescue and dispelled the gloom. " But we mustn't 

 grumble, as we have been spared so far, while so- 

 many of our mates have been killed ; and when we 

 consider what a lot of suffering there is at the pre- 

 sent time it makes you forget all about your little 

 discomforts and troubles as long as you are in good 

 health." 



That letter was one of many which were written 

 in the same strain by fishermen and fisher lads who 

 had forsaken the drift-nets and the trawls for 

 sweeping and patrol work in the North Sea and any 

 other sea to which they were sent. It was " not a 



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