The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador | Page 8

assisting to conduct afloat a work that in many respects
resembled that of our present Young Men's Christian Association
ashore.
The mission steamer was now to run across to Ostend, Belgium, where
supplies were to be taken aboard before joining the fishing fleets.
It was bitterly cold, and while they lay at Ostend taking on cargo the
harbor froze over, and they found themselves so firm and fast in the ice
that it became necessary to engage a steamer to go around them to
break them loose. At last, cargo loaded and ice smashed, they sailed
away from Ostend and pointed their bow towards the great fleets, not
again to see land for two full months, save Heligoland and Terschelling
in the far distant offing.
The little vessel upon which Grenfell sailed was the first sent to the
fisheries by the now famous Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen; and the
young Doctor on her deck, hardly yet realizing all that was expected of
him, was destined to do no small part in the development of the
splendid service that the Mission has since rendered the fishermen.
On the starboard side of the vessel's bow appeared in bold carved
letters the words, "Heal the sick," on the port side of the bow, "Preach
the Word."
"Preaching the Word" does not necessarily mean, and did not mean
here, getting up into a pulpit for an hour or two and preaching orthodox
sermons, sometimes as dry as dead husks, on Sundays. Sometimes just
a smile and a cheery greeting is the best sermon in the world, and the

finest sort of preaching. Just the example of living honestly and
speaking truthfully and always lending a hand to the fellow who is in
trouble or discouraged, is a fine sermon, for there is not a man or boy
living whose life and actions do not have an influence for good or bad
on some one else. We do not always realize this, but it is true.
Grenfell little dreamed of the future that this voyage was to open to him.
He knew little or nothing at that time of Labrador or Newfoundland. He
had never seen an Eskimo nor an American Indian, unless he had
chanced to visit a "wild west" show. He had no other expectation than
that he should make a single winter cruise with the mission schooner,
and then return to England and settle in some promising locality to the
practice of his profession, there to rise to success or fade into
hum-drum obscurity, as Providence might will.
The fishermen of the North Sea fleet were as rough and ready as the old
buccaneers. They were constantly risking their lives and they had not
much regard for their own lives or the lives of others. With them life
was cheap. Night and day they faced the dangers of the sea as they
worked at the trawls, and when they were not sleeping or working there
was no amusement for them. Then they were prone to resort to the grog
ships, which hovered around them, and they too often drank a great
deal more rum than was good for them. They were reared to a rough
and cruel life, these fishermen. Hard punishments were dealt the men
by the skippers. It was the way of the sea, as they knew it.
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