THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 429 



The captain of the packet with his startled officers and 

 men rushed to the rail and looked into the sea, but there 

 was nothing to be found but angry waves. The engine 

 was stopped and the sailors were ordered to take in sail, 

 while the black smoke was blowing in their faces. 



But the captain said, " It 's no use to stop and search 

 for them poor jacks ! I once run over a sailing vessel in 

 the English Channel and in five minutes I had a lifeboat 

 on the spot, but not a man could be found. That was in 

 the daytime and here it is a black night, and it will be an 

 hour before we can get a boat to where we struck her." 



But the mate said to the captain, " It is our duty, we 

 must go! " There is no word so strong to the heart of 

 an Englishman as duty. A lifeboat was let down ; but it 

 swamped in the rough water before a crew could get into 

 it. One end of it was hooked up to let the water out, and 

 the mate called for volunteers to go with him. 



They swung themselves into the boat and started off in 

 the blackness ; but who could tell whether they might 

 ever find the packet again, to say nothing of finding the 

 crew of the shattered fishing schooner .-* But the steamer 

 reversed her engine and backed up slowly over the course 

 she had been running. 



Meanwhile, what of our Cohasset fishermen in the 

 water.'' When the bits of wreckage came up from under 

 the paddle wheel, the men who were not killed caught 

 hold of spars or planks or whatever floated near. They 

 called out for each other and found that six out of the 

 eleven were floating in the water, holding on for dear life. 



It was a miracle that any escaped being crushed in the 

 debris. The skipper, Joshua Litchfield, of Beechwood, 

 was probably wounded seriously, for after holding on for 

 some twenty minutes he loosed his grip and was heard no 

 more to speak. 



The other five began to plan for what fate might await 

 them. They dared not get too close to each other for 



