FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



to the nation's food supply. A meagre landing was 

 not due to any fear of German attack or to actual 

 German operations, but was caused by bad weather. 

 The country owed it to the fisherman that it was 

 possible to say, in connection with the fish supply, 

 that prices generally were tolerable. It had to be 

 remembered that in every direction the cost of 

 labour had risen heavily and this naturally affected 

 the price of fish. Prices varied enormously, as they 

 had always done, and from day to day there were 

 astonishing changes, due, often enough, to the 

 vagaries of the weather. The highest price ever 

 recorded at Scarborough for herrings was reached 

 on September 20, 1917, when ^10 18s. od. a cran 

 was paid — more than 2^d. eacli herring, wholesale. 

 Changes came about swiftly in the course of the 

 war ; and nowhere more quickly than at sea. The 

 conditions of a given day were altered or obsolete 

 on the morrow of the next. An area which had 

 been open in the North Sea for fishing purposes 

 would be closed, and in carrying out these essential 

 changes the Navy had the prompt and loyal co- 

 operation of the fishermen as a body, though there 

 remained rooted in some of the toilers the conviction 

 that if fish was to be had there was an inherent 

 right to go and get it ; and no enemy menace would 

 have deterred some of the skippers and men of 

 fishing vessels. The difficulties of the naval au- 

 thorities often enough was to save these men from 

 themselves, and police-court proceedings showed 

 with what reckless courage fishermen would enter 



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