assessed and
understood--is of a rarer quality; mere physical health and high spirit
cannot generate it; tradition of a sea-inherence and long self-training
alone can bring it forth. That the fishermen (inured to a life of bold
hazard and hardship) would offer valuable service in emergency was never
doubted, but that the level of their gallantry should reach such
heights, even those who knew them were hardly prepared to assume. And we
were weak in our judgment, for their records held ample evidence by
which we should have been able to predict a bravery in war action no
less notable than their courage in the equally perilous ways of their
trade. For a lifetime at war with the sea, wresting a precarious living
from the grudging depths, their skill and resolution required no
stimulus under the added stress of sea-warfare. In the fury of the
channel gales, shipwreck and disaster called forth the same spirit of
dogged endurance and elevating humanity that marks their new seafaring
under arms. The countless instances of their service to vessels in
distress, to torpedoed merchantmen and warships, in the records of
strife, are but repetitions of their sea-conduct throughout the years of
their trading. When Rozhdestvensky's panic-stricken gunlayers opened
fire on the 'Gamecock' fleet on the Dogger, the story of that outrage
was distinguished by the same heroism of the trawlermen that ennobles
their diary to-day. When the _Crane_ was sinking, the crew of _Gull_,
themselves suffering under fire, boarded her to rescue the survivors. . . .
"When they got on board the _Crane_ they found the living members of the
crew lying about injured. The vessel was in total darkness, and it was
known that at any moment she might founder; yet Costello (the _Gull's_
boatswain) went below to the horrible little forecastle to bring up
Leggatt's dead body. Smith (the second hand), who took charge of the
_Crane_ when the skipper was killed, refused to leave her till every man
had been taken off. Rea (the engineer) showed unyielding courage when,
in spite of the fact that the little ship was actually foundering, he
groped back to the engine-room, which was in total darkness, to reach
the valves. The stokehold was flooded with water, and Rea could do
nothing. He went on deck, where the skipper was lying dead, and all the
survivors, except the boy, were wounded."

In all its bearings, the comradely action of the _Gull_ was but a
foreshadowing of _Gowan L