150 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



The trawling vessel is usually one of the stauchest class of fishing schooners of the ordinary 

 type, though there are a number of second-class vessels sent out from Provincetown, Beverly, and 

 Plymouth, the summer voyage to the Grand Bank not being a very severe one. The Gloucester 

 trawlers are all first class vessels, being employed, when not trawling for cod, in some branch of 

 the winter fishery, suck as the Newfoundland herring trade, or in fishing for haddock or halibut. 



In their general rig the trawling vessels have no peculiarities to distinguish them from those 

 in the haddock and halibut fleets. 



The arrangement of the deck is very similar to that described elsewhere in the discussion of 

 the halibut schooners, the checker-boards, the bait-boards, and the manner of stowing cables and 

 dories being essentially the same. A few Gloucester trawlers carry a gurry-pen, placed forward 

 of the house, in the same manner as that described in connection with the George's schooner. This 

 is used for the storage of the spare gear and to give more room for cutting up the bait. The anchors 

 are precisely the same as those carried by other fishing vessels. The cables are of the same size 

 as those carried by the halibut fishermen, but shorter, their usual length being 200 or 250 fathoms. 

 The dories are the same size as those carried by the halibut fishermen. Vessels from other ports 

 do not generally carry such large cables and anchors as are taken by the Gloucester schooners. 



The trawler carries on its deck from three to five "liver butts," which are ordinary molasses 

 hogsheads, with a capacity of 130 to 175 gallons. Three or four of them are stowed together in 

 chocks and lashed to ring-bolts in the deck, just forward of the house, and with their ends toward 

 it. Others are sometimes carried, stowed on their bilges in front of the main hatch, or standing 

 upright, lashed to the fore or main rigging. These butts remain in these positions during the 

 voyage, and are filled up with livers through the scuttle- holes in the tops, the water being drawn 

 off from time to time through the "spile-holes," bored iii the heads or in the staves near the 

 bottom. The scnttle-holes are covered with canvas or boards to keep out the water. 



The splitting tables and dressing tubs, which are used when the vessels are dressing fish on 

 the fishing grounds, will be described hereafter. 



The interior fitting of a trawler is somewhat peculiar. As a rule these vessels carry no ballast, 

 the quantity of salt, provisions, and water carried for a bank trip being sufficiently heavy to serve 

 in its place until the vessels begin to fill up with fish. The greater portion of the hold is occupied 

 by salt-pens, which are built of single boards nailed to stanchions and extending along the sides 

 of the vessel, beginning at either side of the bait-pen, in the after part of the hold, and extending 

 forward nearly to the store-room, which occupies the forward part of the hold. 



Amidships, between the after hatch and main hatch, the hold is completely filled with salt- 

 pens; these are called the "midship pens," in distinction from the others which are known as 

 "wing-pens." Under each hatch is a clear space called the slaughter-house. The forward slaugh- 

 ter-house, or that under the main hatch, is used in salting and kenchiug the first fish before the 

 pens begin to empty, while that under the after hatch serves as a storage for spare gear and also 

 as a passage-way. The pens, which vary from 12 to 13 according to the size of the vessel, hold 

 from 15 to 25 hogsheads of salt each, the aggregate capacity varying from 180 to 300 hogsheads. 



The bait-pen is built forward of the cabin bulkhead and between this and the after hatch. It 

 is 9 or 10 feet wide and 10 or 12 feet long, holding about 60 barrels of bait in addition to the ice 

 necessary for its preservation. The bottom of the pen is raised about a foot above the keelson, 

 and it has a center partition by which it is divided into two sections. This is necessary in order 

 that one pen may be kept closed and protected from the air while the bait is being used from the 

 other. The bait-pen is built double, the boards breaking seams to prevent the passage of air, and 

 in the forward bulkhead it has a door on either side of the partition opening into the after side of 



