T n. 



THE COD, HADDOCK, AND HAKE FISHERIES. 



l.^THE BANK HAND-LINE COD FISHERY. 



BY Gr. BROWN GOODE AND J. W. COLLINS. 

 1. EARLY HISTORY. 



Since the earliest days of the discovery of America there has been an extensive fishery with 

 hand-lines for cod upon the Grand Bank of Newfoundland and the neighboring banks. In the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and in the 6rst half of the present century the fishing was 

 carried on from the decks of the vessels in the same manner as is now the common practice on 

 George's Bank. This method was continued to a limited extent until 1860, and there were in 

 1880 still a few vessels that followed this fishery. These were manned by old-fashioned fishermen 

 from the coast of Maine. Cod hand-lining, at the present time, is carried on almost entirely from 

 dories. 



The introduction of the practice of hand-lining from dories on the Banks appears to have 

 taken place between the years 1855 and 1S58, though these little boats had long been used in the 

 fisheries near the shore.* 



The following history of hand-lining from dories in Maine was prepared by Mr. Earll : 



The first vessel in this section to take dories for going out from the vessel to fish with hand- 

 lines was the schooner American Eagle, of Southport, Capt. Michael Read, in 1858. Mr. Daniel 

 Cameron says that they had been fishing with dories in Massachusetts only a year or two at this 

 time, and that the idea originated with the fishermen of Marblehead. 



The American Eagle sailed about April 10, in company with the schooner Ceylon, for Banque- 

 reau, and by the 10th of June had a full trip of 1)00 quintals, while the Ceylon, fishing from deck, 

 had only 160 quintals. 



On starting for home the American Eagle lent her dories to the Ceylon, which in turn began 

 filling up very rapidly, and arrived home July 4 with 600 quintals. 



The following season a number of the Southport vessels carried dories, and it was thought 

 that they averaged one-third more fish in the same time than vessels hand-lining from deck, while 

 the fish averaged about the same in size, about two-thirds large for each method. 



In 1860, according to Mr. A. P. Hodgdon, North Booth Bay sent her first vessel with dories 

 for hand-lining, and Booth Bay Harbor began about the same time. 



*The Barnstable Patriot, May 10, 1859, says: "It is becoming a custom quite general among the Grand Bank cod 

 fishermen to take dories with them upon the tishing grounds, and fish in them at a short distance from their vessels. 

 Codfish will often take a hook from a dory while they will not notice a hook from the vessel anchored within a rod 

 from the boat. * x ue motion of the boat, giving a quicker movement to the hook, renders it more attractive 

 to the fish than that from the vessel. It is a great change of habit in fish, thus to desert the vessel for the dory." 



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