PERILS OF DEEP SEA

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1934, Page 6

PERILS OF DEEP SEA

WHITE SEA FISHING TASK. SUPPLIES FOR GREAT BRITAIN. Most of the fish consumed in Great Britain is not caught near British coasts, as is generally thought, but up to 1500 miles away. Off the west coast of Iceland, in one of the most treacherous parts of the ocean, and in the White Sea, British trawlers spend many months each year. More than 50 men from these trawlers, says a writer in the News Chronicle, were lost at sea last year, and several trawlers during recent months have steamed out to these far-away fishing grounds never to be heard of again. In the White Sea the temperature is always 30 degrees below zero, and the nets freeze stiff like wire netting as they are hauled on board. Ice forms so quickly on every part of the trawlers, it is said, that if it were not cut away every six hours the ship would be unable to carry the accumulating load. The hardships of deep-sea trawling are often incredible, yet men appear to be able to endure anything if it means a living. Men on the trawlers, especially the captains, earn good money from successful catches, and several skippers in Hull and Grimsby to-day are earning £2OOO a year.