38 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



No factory ashore is driven with greater regularity and 

 persistence than a modern steam-trawler. The purpose 

 of the loom is to weave, weave, weave ; and the object 

 of the trawler is to fish, fish, fish. But the mill has this 

 great advantage, that it is a steady and reliable concern ; 

 the workers are sure of their feet, irrespective of weather. 

 Hard gales may sweep down on the stout stone or brick 

 walls, sleet may slat against the windows, but these 

 things only serve to emphasise the comforts of the indoor 

 workers. The enginemen and boilermen may go about 

 their business unconcerned because of the weather; yet 

 within a hundred miles or so for the western edge of 

 the Dogger is only sixty miles from the east coast of 

 England the fisherman is wallowing in weltering seas, 

 the trawler is towing her gear amid the roar of the wind 

 and the surge of the waves, and the engineer and stoker 

 are carrying out their labours on their bucking, straining 

 iron or steel floors which, as likely as not, are deep in 

 dirty water. Only when the weather is uncompromisingly 

 bad is the gear hauled, for loss offish means loss of money 

 on the Dogger. The skipper or steersman in his wheel- 

 house on the Dogger is an object which always claims 

 the admiration of the observer ; and not less so is the 

 engineer, often almost naked, who stands by his bucking, 

 rattling machinery, and the grimy fireman who has 

 scarcely standing-room on his steel or iron floor. There 

 is the trimmer, too whose position involves incessant 

 toil and discomfort. May the day be not far distant 

 when some efficient mechanical method of supplying 

 boilers with steam will be devised, if only for the sake of 

 eliminating firemen. 



Time was, apparently, when the Dogger was a region 



