PRIMITIVE NORTH SEA MEN 21 



Hull, Scarborough, Filey, Bridlington, and Whitby, as 

 well as many fishing villages, there were considerable 

 bodies of men who won their living from the North Sea, 

 although they did not venture far upon it, and it was 

 these toilers who for a long period came into conflict 

 with the enemies of their country, especially the Dutch. 

 Numberless small encounters took place, of which only 

 incomplete records exist, but there was almost ceaseless 

 warfare, in greater or lesser form, between the peoples on 

 each side of the North Sea, until there came the de- 

 vastating period of the three Dutch wars. 



Of national affairs the primitive North Sea men of 

 the seventeenth century knew little and cared less ; but 

 to fight the Dutch was a thing after their own hearts, 

 for the sons of Holland were dangerous trade com- 

 petitors. Herrings were a source of national wealth, 

 yet the Dutchman had the effrontery to cross the North 

 Sea and expect to be allowed to compete on equal 

 terms with his English rival. Time after time the 

 Hollanders ventured into east coast ports, for honest 

 purposes ; and as often they were cast forth, when 

 North Sea toilers got the chance to push them out. 

 State papers give abundant proof of that for instance, 

 several Dutch " skuits " put into Yarmouth in; September 

 1675 to ta ^ e herrings and sell them at that port, as they 

 had been accustomed to do until stopped by Act of 

 Parliament. They claimed the right to catch and sell 

 the fish ; but the town thought differently, and seized 

 the Dutchmen's catches, salving their consciences by 

 giving a moiety to the poor. 



Those were adventurous times on shore as well as 

 at sea. Afloat merchandise was not safe ; ashore it 



