THE FOOD NAVY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1940, Page 6

THE FOOD NAVY

FISHING FOR GERMAN MINES. The trawlers are out again, fishing for mines this time, said Mr Alastair M. Dunnett in a recent 8.8. C. broadcast. The war has made them put their nets away and bring out the bigger gear. Otherwise I wonder if war has brought many new hazards to their day's work? I wonder, because it is not long since I went winter-trawling myself—-for one trip. I boarded my trawler in Leith a year ago. and in no time at all we were on the way down the river and in io the open Firth of Forth. I was the 11th man —the normal trawler crew being 10 —so they called me the goalie. But right away 1 must avoid giving the impression that these shipmates of mine were a rollicking crew. Deep-sea fishermen never are —at least not the ones I have sailed with. They do not make many jokes, and those they do make are slow, with a kind of grim bite to them. The trawlermcn who take their ships mine-sweeping will be no worse off than they were in the Food Navy. At least they will probably have regular watches and off-duty spells, with the safety of other ships’ company. And to men who live as they do. war is just one more danger.