But breakfast hour appeared more gay,
With sunshine in its train.
Just then was known the grievous fact
That, near to Plymouth Sound,
A Hastings fishing-boat was wrecked,
And eight poor hands were drowned.
But turning from the o'er true tale,
Of Sunday's fatal storm,
See Jove and Mars calm down the gate,
And make it fair and warm.
Some Better News. Almost at the same time that the account of the fishing boat disaster reached Hastings, a report was received that the Hastings mackerel boats in the Devon and Cornish waters had fallen in "luck's way", six of them having caught fish enough to realize £660, and several others also doing well. During the next fortnight, the success continued in a modified form, at the end of which period the gratifying news came to hand that the Hastings fishing luggers, off Plymouth had shared generally in a good haul of mackerel. The writer does not know if the success was continuous, but in any case, as late as May 5th, the report was that more mackerel had been caught on the Devonshire coast in one week than was ever before known, the sums realized by this amounting to an average of £1,000 per day.
Home Catches. Also on the 6th and 6th of May, several shoals were seen off our own coast, and nets were soon put in requisition for their capture. Upwards of 2,000 were hauled on shore by means of a seine net, and were sold for £35. Some of the small boats succeeded in netting a considerable of the piscatory arrivals, thereby realizing from £6 to £20 per boat. The kettle [kiddle] nets at Bopeep, unfortunately did their work too well, so overladen were they that the meshes broke, and most of the fish escaped.
A Relief Fund. As might have been expected - notwithstanding the recent abnormal drain on the purses of the benevolent, a subscription was quickly set on foot for the distressed families of the nine drowned fishermen and by the first week in April had reached the sum of £400. The St. Leonards Gazette (as heretofore shown) was never backward in pleading the cause of charity in cases of real distress, and as associated with this new relief fund, and other calls fo help, the following extract from that journal of March 20th may be permitted:-
Sympathy for the Afflicted - the present has already proved itself an eventful year, and one that has opened the hearts and purses not only of the rich, but of all whose position in life places them beyond the pale of actual want. There has never been in our remembrance, so rapid a succession of calls upon the benevolence of the country in general and our own borough in particular, as that which recent events have given rise to. And how consoling it is that the floodgates of charity have opened with a power and -
