160 ALL AFLOAT 



combine in a single craft. It can be rowed, 

 sculled, sailed, or driven by a motor. It is the 

 first aquatic plaything for the boys, and often 

 the last salvation for the men. The way it 

 will ride out a storm that makes a liner labour 

 and sinks any ill-found vessel like a stone is 

 little short of marvellous. It has a flattish 

 bottom, sheering up at both ends, which are 

 high in the gunwale. The flat stern, which 

 looks like a narrow wedge with the point cut 

 off, is a good deal more waterborne than the 

 bow and rises more readily to the seas without 

 presenting too much resisting surface to either 

 wind or wave. Each schooner has several 

 dories, which fish all round it, thus suggesting 

 what is often called the hen-and-chickens 

 style. At dark, or when the catch has filled 

 the dory, the men come back on board, * nest- 

 ing ' half a dozen dories, one inside the other. 

 But sometimes a sudden storm, especially if it 

 follows fog, will set the chickens straying ; and 

 then the men must ride it out moored to some 

 sort of drogue or floating anchor. The usual 

 drogue is a trawl tub, quite perfect if filled with 

 oil-soaked cotton waste to make a ' slick ' 

 which keeps the crests from breaking. The 

 tub is hove into the water, over the stern, to 

 which it is made fast by a bit of line long 



