ore."

A few days later Jack started with his uncle in the _Bessy_ for Harwich.
For himself he liked the life there better than at Leigh. At home men
could not be said to live on board their boats. They went only for short
trips, taking a meal before starting, and another on their return; but
doing no cooking on board. Here they were out for longer hours, and the
boat was always their home. They were more independent of the tide; and
unless it and the wind were both dead against them, could at all times
run out to their fishing ground, ten miles away, near the Cork
lightship.

The fishing was various. Soles, whiting, and haddock were the principal
fish brought up in the trawls; but there was occasionally a big skate or
two in the net, and these had to be handled with considerable
circumspection, as they could take off a finger or two with the greatest
ease with their powerful jaws and sharp teeth. These fish were always
hung up in the air for a day or two before eating, as the flesh improves
by keeping; the eatable portions were then cut out, and the rest was
thrown overboard. These fish were for the most part eaten by the crew;
the small soles, dabs, and flounders were hawked in the town, and the
rest of the take sent up to London.

There was an excitement, too, in the fishing itself, apart from that
connected with hauling up the trawl and examining its contents, for the
sands off this coast are dangerous, and the wrecks, that have at one
time or another taken place there, innumerable. Occasionally a net would
catch in one of the timbers that had perhaps been lying there a hundred
years or more, and then it either came up torn into fragments, or if it
obtained a really firm hold, there was nothing for it but to cut the
trawl-rope and lose it altogether. In fine weather, however, this step
would not be taken except as a last resource. After trying in vain to
get the net and trawl up the rope would be buoyed, and the next day
another attempt would be made to raise the net, the boat being assisted
by three or four others. The loss of a net was a serious one, as it
took ten pounds or more to replace it and the trawl-beam and its
belongings.

Sometimes a storm would blow up suddenly, and then the nets had to be
got on board with all speed, and the topsails lowered and mainsails
reefed, and the fleet of perhaps a hundred vessels would go racing back
into Harwich, there to anchor just above the Guard, or under shelter of