PRIME AND OFFAL 99 



regions of the Far North. Take the case of the Hull 

 steam-trawler Mackenzie, of 93 tons and 75 horse-power. 

 She left port at the end of 1910, and in December was 

 lost off the coast of Iceland ; but her crew of a dozen 

 men, after excessive hardships, were got ashore by Ice- 

 landers, who bravely and skilfully rescued them by means 

 of bladders to which ropes were fastened. A dozen 

 wild, shaggy little ponies were secured, and on the backs 

 of them the men made their way over the ice-clad country 

 to Reykjavik, the capital, and afterwards returned home. 

 They were lucky enough to escape with their lives. 

 Compare their unhappy and profitless case with that 

 of the Hull steam-trawler Hercules, which, in September 

 1904, put ashore one of the heaviest and most valuable 

 catches ever landed at Grimsby. Her cargo included 

 500 boxes of Icelandic plaice and 400 kits of cod and 

 haddock. The plaice was sold at 245. a box, and the 

 entire catch was valued at joo. The possibility of 

 making such a haul as that is a great inducement to 

 men to forsake the familiar Dogger and adjacent banks 

 and steam long distances before shooting the trawl and 

 starting to reap an almost monotonous harvest of 

 prosperity. 



But no business is more of a gamble than trawling. 

 I have a letter written to me in the month of June from 

 a skipper in one of the fleets. It shows what a miser- 

 able return goes to the trawlers for their hard work when 

 the supplies of fish are greater than the demand. 



" Markets are fearfully low just now," he wrote. 

 " For our first two boardings " (he had just rejoined his 

 fleet) " we made i, 173. 3d. and ^4, i8s. 5<i. for 106 

 boxes; out of that 123. 6d. came to the share of 



