24 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



soldiers look as if they had come out of gaol, miserably 

 poor." 



Soon after the landing of the soldiers twenty light 

 colliers were at anchor, waiting for a fair wind, as 

 they had been doing for many days. They had 

 already got up their anchors and sailed as far 

 northward as Robin Hood's Bay, "but the wind 

 took them short and brought them in here again." 



With so much traffic there were from time to time 

 many exciting happenings in connection with ships. 

 Some dragged their anchors and went ashore, or were 

 blown out to sea, according to the wind ; others took 

 fire or fell into the clutches of a prowling privateer. 

 In November 1676 a fire and a great smoke were 

 seen ten miles southward of Bridlington Bay. When 

 the morning broke it was learned that the vessel was 

 a dogger of London, laden with deals from Norway. 

 In the thick weather she had run ashore, and, being 

 left with a candle burning, she was set on fire and 

 badly damaged, and most of her cargo was destroyed. 



Shipmasters who were anchored in the Bay, with 

 time passing wearily, were glad to give and get the 

 news. They brought tidings of victories or defeats on 

 the other side of the North Sea ; and as often gave 

 accounts of their own doings or adventures. The 

 master of a Newcastle ship, who sheltered just after 

 Christmas, told how, in coming from Gottenburg, he 

 was forced to get the ice cut for more than four 

 miles, to clear a passage to the sea. 



All along the North Sea coast of England and 

 Scotland there were exciting happenings to chronicle ; 

 but more particularly in relation to those places which 



