Yawler

The Englishman, having had his yacht rammed by a yawler which immediately began to careen, boarded the doomed vessel, clubbed the senses, if not the life, out of a crew of mutineering sailors (a performance that is not often encountered outside of highly adventurous narratives of the sea), and rescued the temptress by conducting her to his yacht (which, by the way, was not his own but his uncle's, and which had not been seriously damaged).

However, he was really pointing out that there was no evidence of the yawl rig having been used by the pilots, and went on to deal with the 'yawlers' without apparently realizing that they had a special type of craft.

For decades there have been yawlers in these reaches of the river, and if anyone knows a thing or two about these waters, they do.

At Newlyn each lubber kept a 4-oared boat at anchor, but at Mousehole 3-oared jolly-boats were preferred. These craft were left in charge of a "yawler," a lad aged from 10 to 14, who was paid 1s. 6d. a week (fig. 3, inset).

The yawlers were not all boys, however. A few of them were aged fishermen who, no longer having strength for the strenuous life at sea, had returned to their boyhood's job, and did it well.

Each lugger kept a large dinghy at Newlyn in charge of a boy aged between ten and fourteen who was known as the yawler.

As she did so, the painter was nimbly thrown to those on board, and the yawler would crouch low in expectation of the jerk with which, as the rope became taut, his jollyboat sat up almost on end, with the water boiling up behind the stern as if intent on swamping her.

Fifty years ago Gannets in twos and threes were not infrequently seen on Breydon, whither they went and fished for "yawlers" (half-grown herrings), that were plentiful there in those deep-water days.