FISHERMEN IN WAR TIME 



the end of six months far from his home and with 

 no prospect of seeing it for many months more. 

 These absences were inevitable, especially when a 

 man happened to be operating in the Mediterranean 

 or any base far from his home. 



The fisherman who had been used to the grim, 

 grey North Sea got accustomed to blue Italian skies 

 and waters ; but the Levanter served as a reminder 

 of the hard gales of the Dogger. On the distant 

 blue waters the mine-sweeping skipper would be 

 smart and trim in his white uniform, while on the 

 greatest and sternest of all the battle-grounds, the 

 North Sea, his blue-clad brother would be carrying 

 on the same perilous and ceaseless work. 



A fisherman who had. been attached, limpet-like, 

 to the East coast, found himself at some remote 

 Irish, Scotch, Welsh or English base ; and, fisher- 

 fashion, he made the best of it. If he pursued his 

 ordinary calling he often decided to change his home, 

 and consequently a skipper would forsake the East 

 coast and, with his wife and children and his goods 

 and chattels, settle on the other side of England. 



Wives joined their husbands at naval and fishing 

 bases ; and in cases where the husband was in naval 

 employment a woman would cheerfully undertake 

 a twenty-four hours' railway journey, in a crowded 

 third-class compartment, for the sake of spending a 

 few hours or days in his company. 



Only those who had made the same journeys, 

 under the same, conditions, fully understood the dis- 

 comforts of war-time travelling. The trains were 



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