FISHING FOR MINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1915, Page 9 (Supplement)

FISHING FOR MINES.

THE TRAWLERS' FEARSOME QUEST. / We hear of trades "adapted"' in wartion—of the upholsterer turning to bandoliers and harness, of the manufacturing jeweller producing badges or buttons, or cartridge cases. But what can equal the East Coast fishermen- • the Grimsby and Yarmouth trawler—lulling for submarine mines in the classic Hellespont, that waterway of legend and mystery which old Homer sang and Leander swam to, meet his priestess of love? Have you any idea of the magnitude of our home fisheries or of the annv it employs? Over 100,000 men each year land fourteen million hundred weight of fish, worth about £8,000,000. Of this huge harvest, quite 80 per cent comes from the North Sea, which in norma! times is dotted with regular floating towns of smacks and steam trawlers. In this grey waste are whole cities of , daring, hardy men, with streets made up of rolling vessels, each one a unit in a large fleet—never anchored, never all at home from sea at one and the same time. FORTUNES IX FISH. The fleet, persided over by a veteran "admiral" of uncanny flair for the ways of fish, gives his orders by rockets at night and flags by day. At one time he*s off the coast of Holland, at another on the famous Dogger Bank. Or. again, close up to the Norway shore—always following his prey, and with floating hospitals attending him (each worth • £12,000) to receive and care for casualties, which are severe and frequent in this wild and dangerous life. Hut fortunes are made in it, even by "single-beaters"—those free-lances of the sea who pack their own catch in ice and race back after a lucky haul. The little' Quail caine into Grimsby not long ago with £2OOO worth of'fish; the Jamacar landed £ISOO worth of plaice at the same port. But, as every housewife knows, fish is scarce and dear, owing to Germany's monstrous violation of the very elements of civilised war, which turned the North Sea into one vast minefield, and struck terror to the fishing fleets—the Great Xorthcrn, tlh' Gamecock and Red Cross. THE FATAL MINES. For the first time whole fleets withdrew from their tran 'ling-grounds. ■Steam-drifters and single-boaters laid up in harbour, and the masters read of tragedies day by day. "Just before dark," reports a Lowestoft skipper, "our nets were fouled with mines. One of them exploded near us and blew our nets out of the water, spreading sheets of dead herring on the sea." The trawler Wwdsoi M" Grimsby, was completely smashed by a German mine, jammed in lier gear between the trawl-board and the ship's side. The Winch was stepped, and it was seen ll M t

one of the detonators of the mine was actually .resting on the rail! It was impossible to cut the horrible thing away, and each roll of the boat threatened to explode it. To cut the storv short, the mine did explode, stunning the crew and blowing the trawler to pieces. Yet Skipper Harrison and his crew escaped in their boat, and after being adrift twenty-four hours their eistcr-slup Bernicia picked them up and brought them safely into Grimsbv. The North Sea is indeed alive with mines. Dutch masters saw whole batches of them floating and caught others : n their nets, as well as corpses, both naked and fully dressed. A Dutch lugger trying to clear lier trawl of i mine exploded it with disastrous effects. Skipper and mate were hurled overboard and drowned. Several of the crew were fcadly hurt, and their craft so • damaged that she could only make Lo.vcstoft with the greatest di'llieulty. Then mines drifted ashore and often exploded there-as at Hevst. where three children were playing and were killed outright. Xo wonder fishing was paralysed. Then war broke out-and the Koningen Luisc was sowin" mines before our declaration—7oo steam drift*r,s w 7 e „ -\\ ,vork »' Shetland waters. Ihese fell idle, and with them 8000 men and boys, to say nothing of shore fish-er-girls and other hands. THE ADMIRALTY'S CALL. All the ports suffered severely Yarmouth's herring record of last vear-b--i,A\A crans—dwindled to 177-l.'ji) Aberdeen lost £140,000. Grimsbv reported short trips and light catchesthe Scottish centres put their fishimlosses at £2.000,000. Then came the Admiralty's dramatic call to those, grand men. The trawler was soon transformed. She was now ''His Alajesty's Ship" with a naval officer in charge, her skippers nosing cautiously m pairs for sunken German mines, and torpedo-boats at hand to deal with those deadly engines when thev came gleaming awash in the trawl. * C.nmsby alone was drawn upon tor WO boats. Hull contributed J HO. and x<> on till the fishermen were almost all employed in the most fearsome quest that ever fell to the lot of their industry. Here let me emphasise the value of these men to our Xavv and the nation in this great emergency. They know the North Sea as the' taxi-man knows the London streets. The vast waste is parcelled out and named—tinGreat Fisher Banks, Broad Fourteen?, Bruceys Garden, and the Silver Pit. So the mine-sweeping fisherman brings to this deadly business an expert knowledge vMch none can match. Thanks to him. passages are cleared for our overseas trade. Thanks to him also, devilish craft is thwarted, and the engines of it brushed aside, to the salvation of our warships and our naval men. The fisher knows the sea-floor and the depths with which he has -o deal. Each trick of the tide, too, and each vagary of the trawl, whose, cable he tests from time to time with seeking, sensitive hand that seems to possess a sixth sense. The boats work in pairs, will, bun died, of y Mi U of „| ( '..| v ,i„. raying ,

between them. These cables are so weighted that they drag at a depth of sixteen or eighteen feet—say where the vitals of a battleship lie; 'her engine rooms, magazines and coal bunkers Should a mine explode at a shallower depth than this its victim, although badly damaged, may yet escape complete destruction Perhaps for days the partners dan»c over the main, labouring all ni'jlit and catching nothing. The life is (full for expectancy cannot be indefinitely ' prolonged, and the North Sea fisherman is by no means "highly strung." There's no gear to haul, no catch to clean and pack two or three times n day. Nov and then a vast shadow passes in* the haze—a Dreadnought of the Grand Fleet or a battle-cruiser. Time and again the skipper's hornv hand runs along the trawl-warp that stretches gleaming into the sea and rises beyond as a dripping thread to the other boat. Submarine mines, as all know; are steel spheres tilled with two *or three hundred -pounds of "trinitroI toluol," the new German explosive [ which is also used in the war-heads of their torpedoes. The mines go oil' bv impact. The shock of striking it explodes a detonator, which in turn sets off the whole charge with truly terrific results. Mines are anchored to' the bottom so as to float at any desired depth. And their cable is at length caught and cut by the trawl-warp. "EASY ALL." The "old man" is aware of a catch the moment the miuc-mooriii" is engaged. "Easy all!" he roars, and his Partner is all attention. Here at last is a channel sown with invisible death! Aeu-r is the anchored mine found alone tor the ship that sows these awful seed* drops them astern in regular patterns, often linking two mines so that pressure on the cross-wire will explode them both and destroy the greatest vessel. Now the boats slow down, and steam apart still more widely. The cable between them tautens, and slowly, fitfully the mine gleams awash i„ the heave and loam of the sea. The attendant orpedo-boat has already been warned by a blast on the siren, and now'raccs up at railroad speed between walls of greenish water. Meanwhile the mine is floating-a mere speck of destruction in the glimmering waste. _ 'The low, black warship cuts a gleaming are as she swings about for action. The trawlers back away and watch bluejackets tram a light gun upon the bobbing sphere. There's "a sharp bark a puff "of smoke in the steel bow. and simultaneously a dull, hoarse roar. The I whole sea seems to lift in von-'oful blackness mast-high, with mud and"bottom debris. A moment's pause and the dark wall of water subsides witn terrific fury, churning and seethinir into vortices of madly-swinging foam.'' The mine is dead! Hundreds of trawlers ami thousands of men arc iimv engaged for this work by the Admiralty— at high pav, ami witTi special provision for widows and families in ease of disaster. Accidents are rare, (hanks to the ~'s astonish niig .-kill; hut it wou,U| by. idle to deny

Thesc are the men who now sweep the Dardanelles—that classic lane of water which has lured admirals, from fabled Jason to Alexander the Great. Picture the scene—say. bv night with stormy water ablaze with searchlights from the Turkish forts, and huge warships that cover the cautious operations of their tiny sisters. From the Jlgean to the Black Sea mines are to be feared, with a special danger zone of seven miles between Nagara Point and Chanak. the only important village on the Straits. . How real the danger is mav be judged from the fact that we have already lost huge battleships through those anchored niiues. or mines drifting in shoals down with the racing tide. Jn daylight the fishermen tire at floating mines with rifles, and explode great numbers of them. Any sort of shock will sot off the high explosives in those deadly globes. Sometimes one goes np the moment the trawl warp breaks its mooring. The mine heels over and More that now and again it is the trawler's bow and not her steel cable which strikes the hidden danger. And then a dozen men are blown to certain death. "I saw n Hash," said a skipper partner, ■• and the ship lifted clean out of the water. Down went masts and funnel. All those lads were blown to I atoms. Not a trace of Vni ever seen ' again!" IN TWO DARDANELLES. the two skippers are aware of it the waters rise in thunder, while the brave little boats rock and shiver iii every plank and bolt with the enormous concussion. Our mine-sweepers are proud of their work as pioneers clearing a path for Britain's armed might, both in the North Sea and the Dardanelles that highway to Constantinople upon which so much depends in the great war. "Yes," said one of the skippers to the writer, "it's risky enough, but the pay's good, and all the winter the Admiralty was a father to us." "Ay, an' Princess Louis o' Batlcnlierg was our mother," added his mate. Tie told how this great lady sent out comforts for the mine-sweepers of the North Sea -jerseys and mits, tobacco, newspapers, mid medical stores. • "Minute we, grab one," the skipper pursued, 'Mve feel we've dug up another enemy of England. So these mines are worth-while fish—eh. Tom '" —W. (!. Fit/.-Ocvald.