222 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



been hammered by the cruel seas. But even that dread- 

 ful gale was not so destructive as the great March gale 

 of 1883. 



" When a smacksman talks about a gale he means 

 that something phenomenal took place. In the ordinary 

 way bad weather means to him a breeze ; if it's a real 

 smashing snorter he'll let himself go a bit and call it a 

 smart breeze or a hard blow, with a big lump of sea ; but 

 the weather has to be something of a hurricane before 

 he'll call it a gale. Before you can understand what that 

 real smart breeze meant you must get into your mind 

 some clear idea of what the Dogger is. People hear so 

 much about it and understand it so little. The Ban-k is 

 an immense stretch of sand, rising up from the middle of 

 the North Sea, and forming a sort of tableland. In 

 some places there is a depth of only a few fathoms, and 

 at the most it is very shallow. You can go from thirty 

 fathoms to nine in three minutes. The northerly or 

 north-westerly edge is very dangerous, for, when a gale 

 is blowing from that quarter, the full force of the waves is 

 driven up against the edge of the Dogger and makes a 

 deadly smother. The Dogger itself is a fatal place just 

 because of this uncommon shallowness. The waves 

 have no depth to swing and roll in, and, having struck 

 the Bank, they break into an immense cauldron which is 

 more like a whirlpool than anything else. Give any real 

 sailor or smacksman plenty of room and depth, with a 

 true sea running, and he'll be comfortable in his mind ; 

 but he gets uneasy when he's caught in broken water. In 

 a true, swinging sea he knows what to expect, but he can 

 never tell when he's going to be knocked down when 

 the water comes from all points at once. 



