A Dream of the North Sea

A Dream of the North Sea

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Title: A Dream of the North Sea
Author: James Runciman
Release Date: December 23, 2004 [eBook #14432]
Language: English
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A DREAM OF THE NORTH SEA
by
JAMES RUNCIMAN
Author of Past and Present, Among the North Sea Trawlers, Skippers
and Shellbacks, etc.
London: James Nisbet and Co., 21, Berners Street, W.
1889

DEDICATION
To the Queen.
MADAM,
This book is dedicated to Your Majesty with the respectful admiration
of one who is proud to have been associated with an effort to make the
world more hopeful and beautiful for men who not long ago knew little
hope and felt no beauty.
In the wild weather, when the struggle for life never slackens from hour
to hour on the trawling grounds, the great work of the Mission to Deep
Sea Fishermen, like some mighty Pharos, sheds light on the troubled
darkness, and brave men, in hundreds, are thankful for its wise care and
steady helpfulness.
Perhaps, of all the tribe of writers, I know most minutely the scope and
significance of that Mission--"as well for the body as the soul"--of
which Your Majesty is the Patron; and it is my earnest conviction that
no event in your brilliant and beneficent reign could well be appraised
at a higher value than the despatch of Hospital Cruisers to the
smacksmen, which your gracious and practical sympathy has done so
much to bring about.
Permit me to subscribe myself, MADAM, Your Majesty's most humble,
obedient Servant,
JAMES RUNCIMAN.
KINGSTON-ON-THAMES, May 1, 1889.

PREFACE.
One of the greatest of English classics--great by reason of his creative
power, simplicity, and pathos--has built the superstructure of his
famous allegory upon the slender foundations of a dream. But just as
the immortal work of John Bunyan had a very real support in truths and
influences of the highest power and the deepest meaning, so the pages
which record Mr. Runciman's "Dream of the North Sea," have an actual,
a realistic, and a tragic import in the daily toil, sufferings, and
hardships of the Deep Sea Trawlers. Moreover, the blessed work of
healing the bodies, cheering the minds, and enlightening the souls of
these storm-beaten labourers is not altogether a dream, for the extended
operations which are now undertaken by the Mission to Deep Sea
Fishermen furnish material for one of the brightest and most interesting

records of present-day beneficence. But so much remains to be done, so
great are the trials and the sorrows that still brood on the lone North
Sea, that Mr. Runciman's dream in vivid story and deft literary art, goes
forth with a strong appeal to every thoughtful reader. The greatness of
the work yet to be undertaken may to some extent be conceived from
the marvellous results which have already been accomplished. I have
elsewhere said that to this issue many persons have contributed, from
the Queen on the throne down to the humble and pious smacksman in
the North Sea, but that, so far as human skill and genius can achieve a
conspicuous success in any human and benevolent enterprise, it has
fallen to the lot of the Founder of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen
to accomplish such a success. No one can now write or think or
"dream" of the trawlers on the German Ocean, without referring, and
referring again, to Mr. E.J. Mather, either in propria persona, or--as the
author of "Waverley" might have said--in the guise of some Eidolon
suited to a Vision of the North Sea. This leads me to explain that
though it had been originally announced that the introductory notice to
this book would be from the pen of Mr. Mather, that gentleman, in
view of the apparent references to himself throughout the tale, shrank
from the task, with the result that the honour and the privilege have
fallen upon me. I close by expressing a hope that Mr. Runciman's
dream of the future may, when it reaches its accomplishment, add fresh
lustre to a work which was begun by Mr. Mather in courage and in
hope, and by him carried to a unique success.