WOMAN IN SEA FIGHT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 1210, 7 January 1925, Page 10

WOMAN IN SEA FIGHT.

FISHING FEUD HEROINE. - LEADS BOARDERS TO ATTACK. ELla Trout, who was awarded the.O.B.E. for her gallantry in rescuing' the sole survivor of a steamer torpedoed off Start Point, English Channel, during the war, was one of the leading figures in a fight at sea between a Brixham motor fishing boat and a motor crabbing boat from Hailsand. The incident, which was the outcome of a feud between Start Bay crabbers and Bricham trawler men, occurred recently, when the firing of shots at close quarters apprised the Brixham crew of the other vessel's hostile intentions. Somo of the trawler men lay down on the deck to avoid the shots. A bullet extinguished one of the lights. Both boats were soon travelling as fast as they could, and the crabbers, so the Brixham men allege, tried to cut through the trawl warp, but were foiled. When the vessels were ranged alongside one another, Ella Trout daringly led the Hailsand men aboard Jiho trawler and, brandishing a knife, said eho would cut through tho warp. She wag, however, dissuaded from w> doing. Blows were struck aboard the trawler, but a free fight was avoided. I One story says that the incident ended when the Hallsand men found they had mistaken the trawler for another vessel. The Brixham skipper denied that he was trawling on The Skerries at the timo of the raid.