360 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



Naval Reserve, and 22nd May 1911 was the date fixed 

 for inaugurating the training service. At the beginning 

 of the month only eleven men had been enrolled for 

 service, a twelfth having been rejected because of 

 defective eyesight. These eleven volunteers comprised 

 four engineers, three deck-hands, two trimmers, and two 

 second-hands not enough to form one complete crew. 



The details of service were published ; but there was 

 no general willingness on the part of the fishermen to 

 enrol themselves. For such dangerous work as sweeping 

 the seas for submarine mines they considered that the pay 

 offered was altogether inadequate, especially in view of 

 the fact that they would lose a good deal of their regular 

 work and would have to provide their own food. The 

 skippers resolutely refused to associate themselves with 

 the scheme, and not one signed on, as the Admiralty 

 fixed the age limit between twenty-five and thirty-five 

 years. The skippers called attention to the fact that the 

 best masters in the port were over thirty-five, and they 

 asked for an extension of the age limit ; but without 

 success. There was a strong feeling in Grimsby that 

 before the scheme could succeed the interest of the skip- 

 pers must be secured, and that, if that were done, recruits 

 could be obtained from the various crews ; but no effort 

 was made to gain the co-operation of the skippers, no 

 adequate inducement was held out to the men themselves 

 to join, and the result was that the half-dozen subsidised 

 trawlers were left unmanned by the very crews on whom 

 in time of danger they would have to depend for success. 

 The vessels, however, managed to put in an appearance 

 during the Coronation Naval Review. 



This was almost the first serious attempt to incorpo- 



