But they provide the most excellent material, >As the Captain in command of a group of minesweepers wrote, "I have worked with all classes and many nationalities in all the corners of the world. I never want or hope to work with a finer lot than the fishermen who formed the crews of our minesweepers."
Another senior Naval Officer writes of his admiration for the skippers and men with whom it was his good fortune and privilege to have served. He recalls one incident when, during an influenza epidemic, a trawler skipper had eight men down out of a total complement of twelve. Yet the remaining four managed to take their ship to Sea to pass sweeps and carry out the day's work. A trimmer was running the engines. A deck hand fired the boiler under his directions. The cook worked on deck, and the skipper was at the wheel.
Picture (1) shows some fishermen reporting for duty at a base where they will receive preliminary training before going to sea. They are still wearing their civilian clothing, but before the end of the day will have been kitted up and have started the course to fit them for their work under the White Ensign.
Picture (2) shows two fishermen, now in Naval uniform, manning one of the double-barreled Lewis guns with which their little ships engage the German aircraft. The man on the right is holding two drums of ammunition. Picture (3) shows some of these men under training with small arms, and in Picture (4) a group of trawler skippers one seen undergoing instruction in the use of Lewis guns to enable them to defend their vessels against air attack.
Dangerous Task Halberg; T. K. He ice Herlofsen: Mr. and Mrs. Frithjof. Hoehnke: Mr. and Mrs. F. Hoehnke: Isen-S. Jensen; $S. and HE A, Johnson: a and Mrs. (A. Johnson:
Eroina: ME and Mre. Walter. Kelly: 5 E Omar and Auste SiAdsires at: for Norway and Erie B. and Jao Macgregor; N. N. Malinovsky:
Mr. G. E. O. Mayne; Comtesse A. clu Pac' de Marsoulies.
arrangements were under the jon: of the International Funeral Directors.
Britain owes a deep debt of gratitude to these gallant fellows who come forward for one of the most tasks in war. Mines are not pleasant things to deal with. Nor are German submarines. But everybody who has been in contact with them soon realizes that the officers and men of our fishing fleets are admirable, that they rapidly absorb the initiative, the quick perception, decision and resource that enables their arduous and dangerous work to be carried out without intermission.
Various patrol and mine-sweeping craft have been -lost since this war started. But the risks do not deter them. Indeed, es Mr. Winston Churchill said in a speech at the end of February, "The service is, of course, not only dangerous but arduous in very high degree. However, our vo-Tunteers from the fishing fleets seem to have taken a liking to it—probably because everybody knows how very necessary it is to the country, and that the job has to be done by men bred to the sea."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.