Hard biscuits were eaten with the fish, and the whole washed down
with copious draughts of tea, without milk. Two or three times a
week the men would, as a change, have a meal of salt meat; and on
Sundays a duff--or pudding--of flour and currants was made.

A few days after joining the fleet the weather changed, the sky
became gloomy and threatening. The wind blew hard, and a heavy sea
got up. Will found that keeping watch at night--which was pleasant
enough on a fine, star-light night--was a very different thing,
now. It was no joke looking ahead with the wind blowing fiercely,
and showers of spray dashing into the eyes; and yet a vigilant
watch must be kept for, if the rockets which ordered the hauling of
the trawl were not noticed, some other smack, moving rapidly when
released from the drag of its net, might at any moment come into
collision with the smack.

Still more important was it to notice upon which side the trawl was
to be lowered, after being emptied; and upon which tack the vessel
was to proceed. For a mistake in this respect would be certain to
bring the smack across another; in which case the trawl ropes would
become entangled--involving, in a heavy sea, the certain loss of
one or the other. Many of the smacks carry dogs, and it is found
that these become even better watchers than their masters; for they
can be relied on to call the attention of the watch, by sharp
barking, to the letting up of the rocket, however distant.

A rocket may seem to be an easy thing to see but, in a large fleet,
the stern-most smacks may be three or four miles away from the
leaders and, in a dark, thick night, it is exceedingly difficult to
make out even a rocket, at that distance.

The wind increased to a gale. The trawls were up now, and the fleet
lay to. It may be explained that this operation is performed by
bringing a ship nearly into the eye of the wind, and then hauling
the foresail across, and belaying the sheet. The aft sail--or
mizzen--is then hauled tight, and the tiller lashed amidships. As
the fore-sail pays the vessel off from the wind, the after sail
brings her up again; and she is thus kept nearly head to sea, and
the crew go below, and wait till the storm abates.

Chapter 4: Run Down.

William Gale was astonished at the fury of the tempest, and the
wildness of the sea. Although, at the workhouse, he had often heard
the wind roaring round the walls, there was nothing to show him the
force tha