HELP FOR THE FISHERMEN 



He was longing to hear from them and from his 

 wife again. His correspondent was taking a holi- 

 day, and the skipper wrote : — " I know I shall 

 think myself very lucky when I am able to take my 

 wife and children for their holidays again. You 

 say that the flowers which grow outside your win- 

 dow are small but cheerful and remind you of my 

 ship. Well, that (meaning his trawler) was just 

 the same to me — small but cheerful and homely." 



This skipper sent several picture postcards, of 

 which he was allowed to forward only a limited 

 number, and in one of which he was shown with an 

 Englishman on his left and a Frenchman and a 

 Russian seated with him, while standing behind was 

 a Belgian officer. Another photograph showed 

 prisoners of war at this camp amusing themselves 

 by sailing little toy yachts, a recreation which 

 seemed very much like the scenes associated with 

 the Serpentine and other waters in London parks. 



In many ways the prisoners did their best to pass 

 the weary time pleasantly and profitably, though it 

 was not easj* to do either, one of their forms of re- 

 creation being the making of models. Amongst 

 these were some remarkably good scale models of 

 motor launches and other craft. These articles in- 

 volved the expenditure of a vast amount of time and 

 patience, but those were cheap commodities, and 

 so perfect was the workmanship in many cases that 

 the finished article was worthy of association with 

 the wonderfully perfect and detailed models which 

 v. ere produced by French sailors who were prisoners 

 in England during the Napoleonic wars. 



225 



P 



