ioo NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



the crew. We all get a little out of that. We are 

 hoping the prices will go up. We have thrown away a 

 lot of small haddocks since we heard how markets are. 

 The whole fleet have been shovelling overboard the 

 small haddocks." 



" Plenty of fish, and no money," he says, in another 

 letter ; " but we hope prices will soon pull up a little." 



This skipper told me, both by word of mouth and 

 pen, many little tragedies of the fishing-banks, and 

 almost casually in one of his friendly communications 

 I find this: "A fisherman went to sea the week before 

 last, leaving his wife well. He came back in ten days, 

 and she was in her grave. He left her well and hearty. 

 Poor beggar ! I did feel for him. He sold up his home 

 and has cleared out of Grimsby. And so the world goes 

 on." The skipper was ashore for a brief spell when he 

 wrote that, and he finished by saying, " I am just going 

 to take my craft out for a sail along the country lanes." 

 How he loved to dwell, when talking on the Dogger, 

 on the memory of those rare Sunday strolls with the 

 wife whom he so seldom saw! 



I have also kept particulars of the results of a day's 

 fishing by one of the old sailing fleets of about 130 

 smacks. The catches totalled 2865 boxes of fish. With 

 the exception of 139 boxes of " prime " turbots and soles 

 all the boxes contained " offal" haddocks and such- 

 like inferior fish. Prime always commands a good price, 

 but the fishermen are often heavy losers when offal is 

 plentiful, for while this class of fish sometimes only 

 fetches is., or even 6d., a box in the market, the cost of 

 conveyance thither is 2S. 2d. per box. 



The day's fishing mentioned was very good, and 



