FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



these craft. A case in point was afforded by a Yar- 

 mouth shrimper which was lost on July 17, 1917. 

 Three men left early in the morning to go sea- 

 fishing in a small old boat which had been con- 

 verted into a motor boat. The weather became very 

 rough, and there was little doubt that the men and 

 their craft were lost through foundering in a squall. 

 The tragedy was intensified by the fact that this 

 was the first trip the three men had made in the 

 motor boat. 



Old men who had spent their lives at sea, and had 

 won the right to rest ashore, joined the ranks of the 

 fishers and played their part in the war. It was 

 doubtless due to their age that sometimes casualties 

 overtook these superannuated toilers ; amongst those 

 who perished being two old fishermen, one aged 75 

 years and the other 76. They were drowned in 

 September, 1917, in a gale off St. Abbs Head, Ber- 

 wickshire. 



The relative value of fish before and during the 

 war was shown by examples provided at Aberdeen. 

 A few weeks before hostilities began a considerable 

 number of German trawlers were using that port. 

 One of these vessels landed a large quantity of fish. 

 A good part of this was put on the quayside, and at 

 auction fetched only a sovereign. At that time a 

 gigantic halibut was hardly worth the trouble of 

 taking away, and a specimen which would have 

 gladdened the heart of Bucklaud was in the market, 

 forlorn, and getting high. It was an offence to the 

 senses, and if it had vanished into the water the 



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