liver the fish.

In calm weather the scene was simply amusing but, when the sea was
high, it was exciting and even dangerous; indeed, in the course of
a year more lives are lost, in the process of taking the fish from
the smack to the steamer, than in vessels foundered by gales.

Sometimes the fleet will be joined by Dutch trading smacks, who
exchange fresh bread and meat, tobacco, and spirits for fish. This
traffic is the cause, alike, of loss to the owners, by the fish
thus parted with; and of injury to the men, by the use of spirits.
Fortunately the skipper of the Kitty--although not averse to the
use of spirits, on shore--was a strict man at sea, and saw that no
one took more than a single glass of grog, of an evening.

Over and over again, Will congratulated himself that he had the
good fortune to make his first voyage under such a skipper; for he
shuddered at the stories Jack told him, of the cruelties and
barbarities with which apprentices are treated on board some of the
smacks. Although, however, there is no doubt many brutal skippers
hail from Yarmouth; the fleet from that town bears a good
reputation, in comparison with that of Grimsby--where the number of
apprentices returned as drowned, each year, is appalling.

One night, when the wind was high and the fleet trawling lower down
the North Sea than usual, Will--who was on deck--was startled at
seeing a great ship bearing down upon the smack. He gave a shout of
terror and warning, which was joined in by the crew on deck. One
ran for the hatchet to cut the trawl, and thus give steerage way to
the smack.

It was too late. In another moment the great ship bore down upon
them with a crash, and the Kitty sunk beneath the waves. The
bowsprit of the vessel projected across the deck, just at the point
where William Gale was standing and, in a moment, he caught at the
bob stay and quickly hauled himself on to the bowsprit. Climbing
along this, he was soon on board.

Two or three sailors were leaning over the bows, peering into the
darkness. They had not seen the smack, until too late to avoid it;
and the collision, which had proved fatal to the Kitty, had
scarcely been felt by the ship. Will was at ones taken to the
captain, who spoke English. The boy implored him to turn back, but
the captain shook his head.

"It would be useless," he said; "the sea is heavy and, in these
long boots--" and he pointed to the sea boots, up to the thigh,
which all fishermen we