CHAPTER XVII 



CARRIERS 



IF I were asked to name the finest craft making regular 

 trips and the most hardy of all captains running on 

 established routes, I should not hesitate to answer, 

 " Carriers and their skippers." 



There are many men who tramp the North Sea 

 persistently, and in small craft of a few hundred tons ; 

 but their lives are romantic and luxurious compared 

 with those of carriers' skippers, and their vessels are as 

 different from the carriers as is the Mauretania from 

 the well-found tramp. The trading steamboat's captain 

 spends much of his time very pleasantly in port, and, as 

 a rule, his table is well found and his cabin a most 

 comfortable home. The skipper of the carrier, however, 

 is in port just long enough to unload his fish, take on 

 board ice, fresh boxes, re-coal and replenish stores. 

 His life afloat is that of the ordinary trawler, except 

 that he has more anxiety and responsibility. He is 

 ceaselessly on the rack, either looking for his fleet or 

 hurrying to catch the market with his perishable goods. 

 He is the hustler of the North Sea. 



Only those who know what trawling is, and what 

 bitter winter weather on the water means, can realise 

 the hardships of the men who tramp the Thames and 



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