WITH A LOWESTOFT DRIFTER 131 



I could learn to like 'em. Landsmen have a lot to be 

 thankful for, when they can get things like that to eat, 

 and why they should ever come to sea for pleasure is a 

 thing I can't understand." 



" I reckon," says the whaleman, with a sigh, " 'at no 

 man but a fool, or who wasn't forced, would go fishin'. 

 It's sixteen week since I left my wife an' I'm pinin' to 

 see her again. She'll be goin' to church by this time. 

 An' there's so much work to do an' so little for it when 

 it's done." 



"Yes," proceeds the skipper, "the men who do the 

 most work don't get the most pay. The dealer an' the 

 middleman comes in and sees that that don't happen. 

 We used to sell the herrin' by the hundred, countin' of 

 'em an' givin' a hundred an' thirty-two to the dealer as a 

 hundred. The thirty-two were ' over-tail,' an' belonged 

 to the dealer, who got nearly a third of the profit of the 

 catch for just a-handlin' it ashore, although he hadn't to 

 do any o' the hard work o' fishin'. We sell by measure 

 now, a cran bein' a thousand herrin', but it's the dealer 

 first an' the fishermen a long way second. That don't 

 seem to be right, nohow, but then there's so many 

 puzzlin' tangles in this queer world. Think what it 

 means for fishermen and dealers when there's been an 

 extryordinary catch as sometimes happens. Only four 

 year ago, in November, a fleet of us was kept out o' 

 Lowestoft by fog. When the fog lifted, four hundred 

 drifters, sail an' steam, crowded in, an' all had big catches, 

 too. It was Sunday, but special permission was given 

 to use the market, an' thirty thousand crans were landed 

 thirty million o' herrin'. Think of the ' over-tail ' in 

 that lot ! Most of 'em went off to Russia an' I wonder 



