FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



and bronze medals, so that in this particular batch 

 of honours conferred upon naval officers and men 

 there were no fewer than eighteen skippers, of whom 

 one was a V.C. man, and five had already won the 

 Distinguished Service Cross. Though no special 

 locality of the service done was mentioned, it was 

 reasonable to assume that the sphere of operations 

 specially concerned Italy. 



Some indication of the steady, quiet work of the 

 fishermen who were serving in the Navy was given 

 by a list of honours, decorations and medals pub- 

 lished by the Admiralty on April 6, 1918. The 

 announcements related to services between January 

 1 and December 31, 1917, and amongst the re- 

 cipients were four chief skippers and seven skip- 

 pers, to whom the Distinguished Service Cross had 

 been awarded. Forty-eight second hands, engine- 

 men and deckhands — including " 2nd Hand R. W. 

 Forsyth (now Sub-Lieut. R. V. R.") — received the 

 Distinguished Service Medal ; and four chief skip- 

 pers, thirteen skippers and forty-four other ratings 

 were mentioned in Dispatches. All these awards 

 were for services in vessels of the Auxiliary Patrol. 

 For services in action with enemy submarines two 

 skippers received the Distinguished Service Cross ; 

 one deckhand the Distinguished Service Medal ; 

 five skippers were meptioned in Dispatches, and one 

 second hand received the Distinguished Service 

 Medal. All these recipients were members of the 

 Royal Naval Reserve. 



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