IN THE DAYS OF SAIL 71 



In former days everything depended on wind and 

 sail ; to-day everything in the fleets is done by steam, 

 except boarding, and I am inclined to think that in 

 the near future even this will be accomplished with 

 the help of machinery. There is a fine opportunity 

 for an enterprising man to introduce and at least 

 fully try, as an experiment, a motor-boarder. It would 

 doubtless be maligned and belittled ; but I believe it 

 would triumph. 



The conditions under which the boarding of fish 

 were carried out in the sailing days involved a heavy 

 loss of life. In one fleet alone the average yearly 

 loss was thirty-five men. " Boat upset while boarding 

 fish," was one of the commonest records, and when it 

 was made it meant that life was lost. 



North Sea trawlers are the most skilful and daring 

 boatmen in the world ; but all their skill and courage 

 were at times powerless to save them from death. 

 The fish had been caught, and was packed in readi- 

 ness for conveyance by the carrier to market. A 

 dangerous sea would be running, but the admiral 

 would not consider it essential to order that no 

 attempt should be made to board. Some of the 

 skippers had sent off their boats in worse weather, 

 and they would not want to miss the market and 

 lose the fruit of their all-night's toil. So the boats 

 were thrown out and the trunks put in, a few skippers 

 only preferring to suffer loss of money rather than 

 pay toll in life and limb. 



Of necessity a host of small craft would be afloat, 

 struggling with the vicious cross-seas. The men 

 then, as now, stood up to their work, one facing the 



