A HUMANISING AGENCY 203 



scornful criticisms and jeers from the very smacksmen 

 whom she was designed to help ; yet within a short 

 period she proved her worth, and less than a year after 

 her first cruise Messrs. Hewett wrote voluntarily to say 

 that their men had been completely revolutionised and 

 that great good had been done. They sent a donation 

 and became annual subscribers. That was recognition 

 by practical men of a practical undertaking for the 

 Mission exists "as well for the body as the soul." 



The Ensign was bought in 1882, and in 1883-84 

 three more vessels were acquired the Salem (afterwards 

 the Temple Z0te), 6 the Cholmondeley, the Edward Auriol 

 (afterwards the Clulow), the Ashton, and the Euston. 

 There was a further vessel, the Edward Birkbeck ; and 

 the Ensign was renamed the Thomas Gray, in recognition 

 of the deep interest in the Mission of the late head of 

 the Marine Department of the Board of Trade. There 

 followed two splendid craft, the Queen Victoria and the 

 Albert, of 150 tons each, thoroughly well equipped in 

 every way, and provided not only with a dispensary, 

 but also with a hospital and accommodation for a resident 

 doctor, because it was recognised that to be completely 

 effective the vessels must carry a skilled surgeon, to 

 deal with the many accidents and ailments that are 

 inseparable from North Sea fishing. 



The trawling trade, as carried out by sail, had 

 reached its zenith ; yet there were only two or three 

 far-seeing men who realised that the revolution was 

 near, and that in future everything would give place to 

 steam. The International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883 

 gave a great impetus to trawling, with the result that 

 capital was put into many new fishing ventures for 



