80 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



tive ; they were taken before the magistrates, and sent 

 to gaol. Time after time the boys declared in the 

 police courts that they would rather go to hard labour 

 than back to sea and to prison they were committed. 

 It was publicly and frequently declared that under the 

 old sailing and apprenticeship system boys spent more 

 time in gaol than on board their masters' smacks. Yet 

 there were considerable possibilities of success, as many 

 prosperous men to-day have proved. 



In the old sailing days the smacksmen lived well, but 

 in a very rough manner. The food was spoiled in the 

 cooking, which was usually done by lads who had not 

 been long at sea, and had not been trained in any way. 

 On my first trip to the Dogger I heard of a youth who 

 had run away from home and joined a smack. He was 

 placed in charge of the galley, and as a first effort turned 

 out a pudding. The crew ate it, but requested the cook, 

 as a favour, to make the next with baking-powder. A 

 faithful pledge was given that the instruction should be 

 carried out to the letter. The boy did not know much 

 about the work, and there was no one on board competent 

 to teach him. He depended on his own resources and 

 inventiveness. He boiled the pudding and, just before 

 serving it, scattered a handful of the powder on the top. 

 The criticisms of the diners were repeated to me ; but 

 they cannot be recorded here. 



I asked the skipper of the Aurania to give me 

 particulars of the victualling of his smack for her eight 

 weeks' trip, and he did so. The Anrama carried four 

 men and two boys for whose sustenance she had on 

 board: biscuits, \\ cwt. ; flour, 20 St.; cheese, 25 Ib. ; 

 beef, 200 Ib. ; a leg of mutton ; 4 hams ; tea, 6 Ib. ; 



