A HUMANISING AGENCY 205 



or ten weeks or more, and returned to port without 

 having washed once. Sometimes a Mission ship would 

 take during a voyage as much as ^100. That sum 

 would be mostly in silver and copper, and would represent 

 the sale of more than three-quarters of a ton of tobacco. 

 At that particular time, after my first visit to a North 

 Sea fleet, I was ferried from my smack to the attendant 

 Mission ship the Thomas Gray and bought, for 8s., 

 half a stone of tobacco as a present for the crew who had 

 shown me so much kindness after leaving Grimsby. It 

 was the only way in which I could venture to make 

 a gift. 



The copers were doomed, although they made a 

 brave attempt to hang on to the fleets. At one time 

 three copers were cruising with one fleet ; but they 

 dispersed and disappeared, especially as an International 

 Conference was held at the Hague in June 1886, for the 

 purpose of regulating the coper traffic. As a result of 

 that conference the copers were abolished, and now they 

 are only a memory. I saw one of the last of them. 

 She was cruising forlornly on the outskirts of our fleet, 

 with nothing to distinguish her at a distance from an 

 ordinary sailing smack, except her flag, although close 

 inspection showed that she was not equipped with gear 

 for honest fishing purposes. If only because it has 

 driven the grog-shop off the North Sea banks and it 

 has achieved that the Mission has justified its existence 

 and done a marvellous work. 



The coper s liquors, as I have said, maddened the 

 smacksman, and it was no very rare occurrence for a 

 man to jump overboard, or for smacks to be lost through 

 the drunkenness of crews. 



