WITH A LOWESTOPT DRIFTED i$$ 



the shoals till we start to make Lowestoft our head- 

 quarters. That's a better time than this, when we're all 

 so crowded that there isn't room enough on the sea for 

 us, and we get bunched up an' foul our nets, and some- 

 times lose them an' our fish as well. I've known us lose 

 a hundred nets, costin' three pound each three hundred 

 pound altogether. 



" You were askin' about the Dutchman that we saw 

 comin' away from the North it allus seems so strange 

 to me how them old boms make their way out and home 

 again they do things so leisurely, you see. He hadn't 

 even got his tawps'ls set. I reckon 'at the Dutchmen 

 are poor fishermen ; the French are better, an', of course, 

 Lowestoft men best of all. I once saw some Dutchmen 

 with a catch of herrin' so big that the nets looked just 

 like a solid mass, an' the Dutchmen were three days in 

 haulin'. They had to get the foremast up an' rig halyards, 

 an* they shook the herrin' out like apples from a tree. 

 The Dutchmen were three days in haulin', but I dare say 

 we should ha' done the work in fourteen or fifteen hours. 

 It's cruel hard work when it comes to a heavy haul, be- 

 cause there's no stoppin' for meals when we once begin." 



"No," observes the hawseman, "there's just a mug 

 o' tea an' then breakfast, which may be served at five or 

 six in the mornin', or the same time in the afternoon 

 an' that's the fisherman's best meal. He don't take no 

 count o' dinner, nor yet supper, so long as his breakfast's 

 got. Old Skip there, he don't want no more nor two 

 herrin' for breakfast, I reckon ; an' I don't care for more 

 nor eight or so ; but the old net-stower, he can't be 

 satisfied nohow wi' less nor a dozen, an' I do know 

 fishermen who manage to get through nearer a score 



