74 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



fish on the Dogger, just as steam has added vastly to 

 the all-round safety and comfort of the men who 

 labour ceaselessly to keep the markets well supplied 

 with fish. 



" Sending a man fleeting is like sending him to the 

 gallows," a smacksman once told me, in the days of the 

 sailing fleets, and he bitterly condemned a system which 

 cut a man entirely off from shore life and compelled him 

 to spend his existence on the open sea, with never a 

 change from his workaday surroundings, except such as 

 weather, runs home, and the luck of trawling brought 

 him. Can it be cause for wonder that he sought the 

 refuge of the coper and forgetfulness of toil and misery 

 in a mad debauch ? Was it not natural enough that he 

 should seek and find oblivion in the vile drinks which 

 were slinkingly sold in the fleets, and out of which 

 enormous profits were made by the foreigner? And 

 can it be matter for marvel that when he got ashore on 

 a place like Heligoland or one of the other islands, or the 

 mainland on the east side of the North Sea, the smacks- 

 man should behave more like a savage than a civilised 

 being ? 



There were men in the old days into whose souls the 

 iron of the North Sea had settled, and who saw no gleam 

 of hope or prospect of salvation in the future. They 

 were almost as much the slaves of their employers as 

 negroes were the chattels of their masters on the planta- 

 tions, with this difference, that the nigger had at least 

 joyous sunshine and surroundings, and not infrequently a 

 happy existence. He was not cut off from his womenfolk 

 and children and compelled to lead a grey, lonely, and 

 bitter life. Under a good master there was much to 



