IN THE DAYS OF SAIL 73 



North Sea fleets during the year which ended on 

 30th June 1910, was four, a number which goes to 

 show how much safer are the days of steam than 

 were the days of sail. 



That was the sort of toll which had to be paid 

 yearly, and was paid, while ferrying the fish on the 

 North Sea from the smacks to the carriers. 



The old-time smacksmen scorned and hated all pro- 

 tective measures. " We're used to being drowned," they 

 said, and dreaded more than death itself the chance of 

 being ridiculed for taking precautions. The Board of 

 Trade might make regulations as to lifebuoys, but there 

 were few means of enforcing laws on the Dogger, 

 and, often enough, when lifebuoys were available they 

 were not put into the boats. With sails, too, involving 

 the necessity of dependence on the wind and a 

 dangerous clustering of smacks near the waiting carrier, 

 accidents were bound to happen amongst the crowded 

 boats, and sometimes, when a smack had to bear 

 away because of a freshening wind, the boat would 

 have to be pulled through waters which had become 

 swiftly troubled, and perhaps from sheer exhaustion 

 the men would be unable to meet a charging sea 

 and would be overwhelmed and perish. 



Nowadays the steamboats can be manoeuvred so 

 skilfully that the carrier is only a stone's throw away, 

 there is but a short distance to ferry, and, if need 

 arises, the trawler can run down and pick up her 

 boat before serious mischief happens. In this respect 

 steam, if more remorseless than sail, and steamboats, 

 if not so romantic and picturesque as smacks, have 

 worked wondrous changes in connection with boarding 



