ea's_ assistance to _Floandi_ in the raid by
Austrian cruisers on the drifter line in the Adriatic. The circumstances
were curiously alike--the actual occurrence, the individual deeds. We
have Skipper Nichols refusing to leave until his wounded were embarked,
and Engineman Mobbs groping (as Rea did) through the scalding steam of
_Floandi's_ wrecked engine-room to reach the stokehold and draw the
fires. Then, as in the Russians' sea-panic of October 1904, the
fishermen (fighting seamen now) came under a sudden and murderous
gunfire at close range. Overpowered by heavy armament, there was no
flinching, no surrender. _Gowan Lea_ headed for the enemy with her one
six-pounder spitting viciously. The issue was not considered--though
Skipper Joseph Watt must have had no doubt that he was steering his
drifter towards certain destruction. Her gun was quickly put out of
action. Her funnel and wheelhouse were riddled and shot to pieces. Water
made on her through shot-holes in the hull. On the gun-platform, her
gunlayer struggled to repair the mechanism of the breech--his leg
dangling and shattered. Shell-torn and incapable of further attack, she
drifted out of the line of fire. Bad as was her own condition, there
were others in worse plight. _Floandi_ had come under direct point-blank
fire, and her decks were a shambles. Out of control--her main steam-pipe
being shot through--seven dead or badly wounded, and only three
remaining to work her, she was in dire need of assistance. Skipper Watt
observed the distress of his sea-mate and steered _Gowan Lea_ down to
her to offer the same brotherhood as of the _Gull_ to _Crane_. The
analogy is peculiarly complete: the boarding, the succour to the
wounded, the reverent handling of the dead. Not as a new spirit born of
the stress of war, but as the outcome of an age-old tradition, Gowan Lea
stood by.

After four years of warfare at sea, serving under naval direction and
discipline, one would have expected the fisherman sailing under the
White Ensign to lose at least a certain measure of his former
character--to have become a naval seaman in his habits of thought, in
his actions, his outlook. Four years of constant service! A long term!
He has come under a control that differs as poles apart from the free
days of 'fleeting' and 'single boating.' He is set to service in
unfamiliar waters and abnormal climates, but the habits of the old trade
still cling to him. New gear comes to his hands--swe