en fathoms and
coffee grounds--must be on the tail end of the Dogger. Put her a bit
more to the westward, boy," he would remark, and think no more about
it, though he might have been three or four days looking for his
fleet, and not spoken to a soul since he left land. I remember one
skipper used to have the lead brought down below, and he could tell by
the grit between his teeth after a couple of soundings which way to
steer. It sounds strange even now, but it was so universal, being just
second-nature to the men, who from boyhood had lived on the sea, that
we soon ceased to marvel at it. Skippers were only just being obliged
to have certificates. These they obtained by _viva voce_ examinations.
You would sometimes hear an aspiring student, a great black-bearded
pirate over forty-seven inches around the chest, and possibly the
father of eight or ten children, as he stamped about in his watch
keeping warm, repeating the courses--"East end of the Dogger to Horn
S.E. by E. 1/2 and W. point of the island [Heligoland] to Barkum S. 1/2 W.
Ower Light to Hazebrough N.N.W."--and so on. Their memories were not
burdened by a vast range of facts, but in these things they were the
nearest imaginable to Blind Tom, the famous slave musician.

Our long round only occupied us about a month, and after that we
settled down with the fleet known as the Great Northerners. Others
were the Short Blues, the Rashers (because they were streaked like a
piece of bacon), the Columbia, the Red Cross, and so on. Sometimes
during the night while we were fishing into the west, a hundred sail
or more of vessels, we would pass through another big fleet coming the
other way, and some of our long trawls and warps would tangle with
theirs. Beyond the beautiful spectacle of the myriads of lights
bobbing up and down often enough on mighty rough seas--for it needed
good breezes to haul our trawls--would be the rockets and flares of
the entangled boats, and often enough also rockets and flares from
friends, and from cutters. One soon became so friendly with the men
that one would not return at night to the ship, but visit around and
rejoin the Mission ship boarding fish next day, to see patients coming
for aid. Though it was strictly against sea rules for skippers to be
off their vessels all night, that was a rule, like all others on the
North Sea, as often marked in the breach as in the observance. A
goodly company would get together yarning and often singing