30 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



seems to have been moved to try his luck as a fisher- 

 man, for he declared 



"The fishermen brave, more money have 

 Than any merchants two or three ; 

 Therefore I will to Scarborough go, 

 That I a fisherman brave may be." 



Robin gallantly ventured forth, probably in a coble ; 

 but, if he really meant to fish, he lost sight of his honest 

 purpose on seeing a French ship of war approach. 

 There was no doubt in his mind as to what he should 

 do he commanded that he should be tied to the mast, 

 so that he could stand fair at his mark, then, taking 

 his bow, and declaring that he would spare never a 

 Frenchman, he shot his arrows and vanquished his 

 foes ; after which, boarding the ship, he was rewarded 

 by finding " Twelve thousand pound of money bright," 

 as the ballad-writer duly puts on record. 



The far stretch of east coast had its little nooks 

 of harbours and established ports long before the days 

 of Robin Hood. At the time of the Conquest the 

 primitive North Sea men of Yarmouth went after the 

 herring in their open boats, and in succeeding centuries 

 they plied their ancient trade in vessels which grew 

 larger, had better accommodation, and carried more 

 men forerunners of the modern lugger and the steam- 

 boat. Yarmouth has its own historians conscientious 

 and laborious workers like Manship, Palmer, and Nail 

 and the town of gridirons gave them plenty of material ; 

 while Defoe and Dickens added imaginatively to what 

 has been recorded more prosaically. The name of 

 Captain Cook is imperishably associated with the 

 Yorkshire coast, on which he was born. 



