Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-12-12
Life in a TrawIer.

Lire IN a ITdWIef.
In A. E. w. Mason's latest novel
THE Truants." there is a description,
of life on q North Sea TraWler which
has special pertinerce at this moment
Mr.. Mason having himself gathered his
material through life with the Eng
liSh fishermen, knows whereof he
writes, and his account may therefore
be accepted as truthful and exact. In
'''The Truants" his hero, Tony STREET
ton is represented as shipping aboard
the Perseverance Cor a period Of a
few weeks, in order to work out, un-
disturbed certain problems by which
he is confronted. He has to take some
risks, and in the traWling fleet one
learns how to estimate risks. out
there" he says, ''men risk their lives
daily to put Il few boxes of fish /on
board a fish cutter. Take the risk half
half-heartedly and your boats swamp
cd for a sure thing, but take it with
all your heart and there are the fish
boxes to your credit" Just how the
risks are faced and conquered by the
fishermen of the fleet, Mr.. Mason tells
US in his description of the meeting be-
tNctI SIISllOll anu fAi'tIl w sti
has come out in the steam fish carri-
er to find him. It's no bobby's job, :"
the captain of the City of Bristol tell
him, when referring to the life of a
man on the Dogger Bank, and so we
may infer from the following:
Wraris(ien looked over Il gray, saw
age sea. The air was thick with
spindrift. The waves loArcd exulting-
ly up from windward ana loIred away
to leeward from urI 4 the cutters
keel in a steep, uprising hill Of foam.
All about him the sailing boats head
ed to the wind, sinking and rising in
the burrows, SO that WarriSden would
just see brown topsail over the edgt
Of a steep roller like a sharks fin, and
the next instant the dripping hull OF
the boat flung out upon breaking
crest.
You will have to look slippy when
the punt from the Perseverance comes
alongside with her fish," the captain
shouted. THE punt will give you a
passage back to the Perseverance, but
I don't think you will be able to return
here. There's a northwesterly gale
blowing up and the sea is increasing
every moment. However, there will be
another cutter up tomorrow, and if it's
not too rough you could be put on board
of her"
It took Warrisden a full minute to
realize the meaning of the captains
words. He looked at the tumbinS.
breaking waves; he listenied to the roal
OF the wind through the rigging.
THE beats won't come alongside to-
day!' he cried.
Look"
Certainly some manoeuvre was in
progress. The trawlers were all form
ing to windward in a rough sem-circle
about the cutter Warrisden could seo
boat tackle being ricged to the main
yards and men standing upon the boats
capsizcd on deck. They We're actually
intending to put their fish on board in
the face Of the storm.
You see, with the gale blowing up,
they mayn't get q chance to put their
fish on board for three or four days
after this" the captain explained.
"Oh, you can take it from me. The
Moth Sea is not 5obby's job
AS NdIIlSttu NdlCUSb, OIIe ny Ollc
the trawlers dropped their boats and
loaded them with fishboXes. The boats
pushed off, three men to each, with
their lifebelts about their oilskins, and
came down with the wind toward the
fish carrier. The trawlers bore away,
circled round the City of Bristol, and
took up their formation to leeward, SO
that. having discharged their fish, the
beats might go down again with the
wind to their respective ships. War
risden watched the boats piled up with
fishboxes coming through the welter of
the sea. 1t seemed some desperate race
was being rowed.
"Can you tell me which is the boat
from the Perseverance," he asked.
II think it's the fifth" said the cap
tain.
The boats came down, each one the
kernel of a globe OF spray. Warrisden
watched. admiring how cleverly they
chose the little gaps and valleys in the
crests of the waves. Each moment he
looked to see a boat tossed upward and
overturned: each moment he dreaded
that boat would be the fifth. But no
boat was overturned. One by one they
passed under the stern of the City Of
Bristol and came alongside under the
shelter of its wall.
The fifth boat ranged up. A man
stood up in the stern.
''The Perseverance," he cries.
Fourteen boxes!" and as he spoke
great sea leaped up against the wind
ward bow Of the cutter. The cutter
rolled from it suddenly, her low bull
warks dipped under water on the lee
ward side, close by the Perseverance,
boat.
"Shove Off" the man cried, who was
standing up, and as he shouted ne
lurched and fell into the bottom of the
boat. The two men in the bow pushed