CHAPTER XVI 



THE GREAT MARCH GALE 



I DO not know I doubt if any one can tell how many 

 lives the North Sea gales have claimed amongst the fisher- 

 men, nor how often it has been necessary to put on record 

 the brief statement, " with all hands " ; but time after time 

 the storms have swept the waters and the sailing craft 

 and steamboats have paid tribute. By a gale on 3rd 

 December 1863 nearly a hundred children in Yarmouth 

 alone were made orphans, and the loss of life from Hull 

 and Grimsby was as heavy. Twenty-four smacks were 

 lost on the North Sea, with all hands 144 men and 

 boys, leaving 84 widows and 192 children. From one 

 family alone two brothers, two brothers-in-law, and two 

 cousins perished. Catastrophes like these are scattered 

 through the century. Every gale that lashes the North 

 Sea into fury takes its toll of human life ; but not so merci- 

 lessly as in the old days of sail. Canvas has been driven out 

 by steam, and the stout oak has given place to steel and 

 iron. The men, however, are just the same, and the 

 trawler of to-day is as swift to respond to the call for help 

 as ever his predecessors were and they never failed to 

 risk life and limb. Every British battle brings out the 

 stuff of which V.C. and D.S.O. men are made ; every 

 struggle on the North Sea, too, makes heroes from the 



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