There were more than twenty thousand of these men in the North Sea fleets.  Grenfell must have been overwhelmed with the thought that he was to be the only doctor within reach of that great number of men.  “Heal the sick”—­that was his job!

But he resolved to do much more than that!  He was going to “Preach the Word” in smiles and cheering words, and was going to help the men in other ways than with his pill box and surgical bandages.  As a doctor he realized how harmful liquor was to them, and he was going to fight the grog ships and do his best to put them out of business.  In a word, he was not only going to doctor the men but he was going to help them to live straight, clean lives.  He was going to play the game as he had played foot ball or pulled his oar with the winning crew at college.  He was going to put into it the best that was in him!

That was the way Grenfell always did everything he undertook.  When he had to pummel the “old boy” at Marlborough College he did it the best he knew how.  Now he had a big job on his hands.  He resolved, figuratively, to pummel the rum ships, and he was already planning and inventing ways that would make the men’s lives easier.  He went into the thing with his characteristic zeal, determined to make good.  It is a mighty fine thing to make good.  Any of us can make good if we go at things in the way Grenfell went at them—­determined, whatever obstacles arise, not to fail.  Grenfell never whined about luck going against him.  He made his own luck.  That is the mark of every successful and big man.

“There are the fleets,” said the skipper one day, pointing out over the bow.  “We’ll make a round of the fleets, and you’ll have a chance to get busy patching the men up.”

And he was busy.  There came as many patients every day as any young doctor could wish to treat.  But that was what Grenfell wanted.

As the skipper suggested, the mission boat made a tour of the fleets, of which there were several, each fleet with its own name and colours and commanded by an Admiral.  There were the Columbias, the Rashers, the Great Northerners and many others.  It was finally with the Great Northerners that the mission boat took its station.

Grenfell visited among the vessels and made friends among the men, who were like big boys, rough and ready.  They were always prepared to go into daring ventures.  They never flinched at danger.  Few of them had ever enjoyed the privilege of going to school, and none of the men and few of the skippers could write.  They could read the compass just as men who cannot read can tell the time of day from the clock.  But they had their method of dead reckoning and always appeared to know where they were, even though land had not been sighted for days.

Most of these men had been apprentised to the vessels as boys and had followed the sea all their lives.  There were always many apprentised boys on the ships, and these worked without other pay than clothing, food and a little pocket money until they were twenty-one years of age.  In many cases they received little consideration from the skippers and sometimes were treated with unnecessary roughness and even cruelty.