THE FOURTH YEAR 



• incident might have been classed as a good riddance. 

 But the case was otherwise indeed at the beginning 

 of the fourth year of war, when it happened that at 

 the market one morning a line halibut did slip into 

 the water. There was no intention of leaving it 

 there, however. A rare event needed a rare remedy ; 

 accordingly a diver was sent down and he recovered 

 the lost treasure, which, being put up for sale, 

 fetched ;£io 15s. od. 



Drifters which were herring fishing out of Fleet- 

 wood in the summer of 191 7 were making very 

 profitable hauls. One catch, landed on a Sunday in 

 August, made ^460 at the following day's sale. 

 The boat returned to sea without loss of time and 

 was in again on the Tuesday night, when the catch 

 realised £420. This made a total of ^880 for the 

 two catches ; an uncommonly good figure, but some 

 of the drifters did even better, one having 90 crans 

 of herrings which averaged ^5 a cran, and another 

 96 crans, which averaged £4 8s. od. a cran. 



This profitable fishing took place in what might 

 well be considered a safer area than the North Sea ; 

 but that region also was well fished. At Scar- 

 borough, for example, a fishing-port which had for 

 some reason best known to the Germans received 

 special attention at their hands, there was a fair 

 herring season, and prices were well maintained. 



( hie August day fifty boats arrived with catches 

 of forty crans down. Compared with the pre-war 

 fishings, the landings on the East coast were small, 

 of necessity, but they were a most valuable addition 



•J.M 



