From time immemorial fishing fleets have gone to the North Sea, and
the North Sea fisheries is one of the important industries of Great
Britain. Men are born to it and live their lives on the small fishing
craft, and their sons follow them for generation after generation. It
is a hazardous calling, and the men of the fleets are brave and hardy
fellows.
The fishing fleets keep to the sea in winter as well as in summer, and
it is a hard life indeed when decks and rigging are covered with ice,
and fierce north winds blow the snow down, and the cold is bitter
enough to freeze a man's very blood. Seas run high and rough, which is
always the case in shallow waters, and great rollers sweep over the
decks of the little craft, which of necessity have small draft and low
freeboard.
The fishing fleets were like large villages on the sea. At the time of
which we write, and it may be so to this day, fast vessels came daily
to collect the fish they caught and to take the catch to market. Once
in every three months a vessel was permitted to return to its home
port for rest and necessary re-fitting, and then the men of her crew
were allowed one day ashore for each week they had spent at sea.
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