D.-DANGERS OF THE FISHERIES. 



49. DANGERS TO THE VESSELS. 



The characteristics of the fishing schooner and its management will be discussed hereafter. 

 We shall here consider the dangers to which these vessels and their crews are exposed. 



The dangers to which these vessels are liable may be considered under nine heads: («) Dangers 

 on the fishing grounds; (b) dangers encountered while making passages to and from the grounds; 

 (c) dangers in approaching and leaving the shore; (d) dangers from collision; (e) dangers of the 

 harbor; (/) dangers from ice; [g) dangers from fire or lightning; (h) dangers from attacks of 

 marine animals; (i) and dangers from defects in the construction of the vessel itself. 



DANGERS ON THE FISHING GROUNDS. 



Dangers of the cod fishery on George's Bank. — Judging from the record of disasters, 

 the George's fishery is probably the most dangerous one in the world. On this ground over one 

 hundred Gloucester vessels are constantly employed, winter and summer. In summer a few New 

 London vessels resort there, principally for halibut, and it is also visited by a fleet of mackerel 

 catchers. The peculiar dangers of this fishery are encountered chiefly in the whiter. It is the 

 custom for the vessels in winter to anchor close to one another upon some portion of the Banks. 

 The favorite locality is in the immediate vicinity and to the eastward of extensive shoals, on which 

 there is from 2 to 12 fathoms of water, and where the waves break in rough weather. There are 

 few instances where vessels which have been lost in this locality have left any record of the nature 

 of the disaster which befell them. There is therefore doubt as to how most of the losses have 

 occurred, but the theory is generally accepted that the vessels drifted into shallow water and 

 foundered. There have been a few cases in which vessels have righted with loss of masts after 

 being rolled over by the waves, and the crews have survived to tell the tale. Most of the losses 

 have been during heavy easterly gales, when the vessels may have been forced into shallow water. 

 The proximity in which the vessels are anchored greatly enhances the danger to which they are 

 exposed, for if one of them goes adrift it may become necessary for many of those to leeward to cut 

 their cables and also go adrift. Sometimes nearly the whole fleet has been thus set adrift at once. 

 Of course, if they can retain their hold upon the bottom they are in comparatively little danger. 



The theory is held by many fishermen that loss is often occasioned by a drifting vessel com- 

 ing into collision with one at anchor, an accident which is most surely attended with fatal results 

 to both. There is only once instance on record where a vessel thus drifting into contact with an- 

 other escaped destruction, and in this case the vessel which .she struck immediately sunk. This 

 theory receives strong support from the fact that there have been so many hundreds of narrow 

 escapes from collision between vessels thus drifting about. In the columns of the Cape Ann 

 Advertiser and in the Gloucester " Fisherman's Memorial and Record Book" may be found re- 

 corded numerous instances of this kind. These gales are generally accompanied by dense snow and 

 Often also by with extreme cold which rem lei.-, it quite impossible for the men to look to windward and 

 to see a drifting vessel in time to cut the cable and escape collision. It is the common custom for 



the entire crews at such times to remain on deck, prepared for any emergency, and if it is possible 



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