The fishing fleets keep to the sea in winter as well as in summer, and it is a hard life indeed when decks and rigging are covered with ice, and fierce north winds blow the snow down, and the cold is bitter enough to freeze a man’s very blood.  Seas run high and rough, which is always the case in shallow waters, and great rollers sweep over the decks of the little craft, which of necessity have small draft and low freeboard.

The fishing fleets were like large villages on the sea.  At the time of which we write, and it may be so to this day, fast vessels came daily to collect the fish they caught and to take the catch to market.  Once in every three months a vessel was permitted to return to its home port for rest and necessary re-fitting, and then the men of her crew were allowed one day ashore for each week they had spent at sea.  Now and again there came to the hospital sick or injured men returned from the fleet on these home-coming vessels.

When Grenfell passed his final examinations in 1886, and was admitted to the College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons of England, Sir Frederick Treves suggested that he visit the North Sea fishing fleets and lend his service to the fishermen for a time before entering upon private practice.  The great surgeon, himself a lover of the sea and acquainted with Grenfell’s inclinations toward an active outdoor life, was also aware that Grenfell was a good sailor.

“Don’t go in summer,” admonished Sir Frederick.  “Go in winter when you can see the life of the men at its hardest and when they have the greatest need of a doctor.  Anyhow you’ll have some rugged days at sea if you go in winter.”

He went on to explain that a few men had become interested in the fishermen of the fleets and had chartered a vessel to go among them to offer diversion in the hope of counteracting to some extent the attraction of the whiskey and rum traders whose vessels sold much liquor to the men and did a vast deal of harm.  This vessel was open to the visits of the fishermen.  Religious services were held aboard her on Sundays.  There was no doctor in the fleet, and the skipper, who had been instructed in ordinary bandaging and in giving simple remedies for temporary relief, rendered first aid to the injured or sick until they could be sent away on some home-bound vessel and placed in a hospital for medical or surgical treatment.  Thus a week or sometimes two weeks would elapse before the sufferer could be put under a doctor’s care.  Because of this long delay many men died who, with prompt attention, would doubtless have lived.

“The men who have fitted out this mission boat would like a young doctor to go with it,” concluded Sir Frederick.  “Go with them for a little while.  You’ll find plenty of high sea’s adventure, and you’ll like it.”