312 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



Greatest of all scandals was the failure to pay the 

 seamen their wages. Men were forced to serve, under 

 conditions which to the present-day mind are appalling, 

 yet they could not get their miserable money. In 

 despair some of the pressed men sought to escape by 

 jumping overboard and swimming ashore. A few found 

 freedom that way ; others were mercilessly shot as they 

 made their attempts. Considerable numbers of good 

 English seamen entered the Dutch service, and fought 

 as readily against their own country as they would have 

 bled for it if they had been treated with common and 

 ordinary gratitude. 



" Some do not stick to say things were better 

 ordered in Cromwell's time," wrote the Hullman, "for 

 then seamen had all their pay, and were not permitted 

 to swear, but were clapped in the bilboes ; and if the 

 officers did they were turned out, and then God gave a 

 blessing to them ; but now all men are for making them- 

 selves great, and few mind the King and the nation's 

 interest, but mind plays and women, and fling away 

 much money that would serve to pay the seamen. . . . 

 Our garrison is much out of repair ; very many of our 

 gun-carriages are very bad, and almost past using." 



In every big and little port on the east coast, indeed, 

 there was amazement and alarm. None knew better 

 than these people on the North Sea shores how powerful 

 and insolent the Dutch had grown, and all realised that 

 the degrading raid on the Thames and Medway as far 

 as Rochester would spur the men of Holland to further 

 swoops and outrages. 



Bad as the news was, it became infinitely worse 

 when it reached remote places like Whitby and 



