THE FISHERMAN'S TOOLS 



Next comes the type of vessel most associated in our 

 minds with the sea-fisheries the decked boat or smack. 

 More often than not she is "cutter-rigged," having a 

 single mast with main-sail, top-sail, jib-sail, and fore-sail. 

 Yawls, or yawl-rigged smacks, only differ from the other 

 kind in having a second mast aft the mizzen. The 

 smack has a cabin furnished with a stove and three or 

 four bunks, while, for storage purposes, the ample spaces 

 below hatches in the fore part of the ship are used. 

 Larger decked boats schooners, brigs, and other square- 

 rigged craft are employed in the whaling and sponge 

 trade, and also by the American cod-fishers ; but as a rule 

 these are not so much actual fishing-boats as storehouses, 

 lodging-houses for the crew, and workshops. They are 

 supplied with a number of small rowing-boats which do 

 the catching work and unload their cargo into the larger 

 vessel at night. 



Now as to the gear or tackle necessary in fishing from 

 boats. It may be classified under three heads : lines, nets, 

 and pots. Lines may be of the simpler sort, whether with 

 rod and winch, as used in tarpon-fishing, or only intended 

 to be held in the hand ("hand lines'"), such as are employed 

 on the east coast for cod, and on the south for whiting; or 

 they may be of the more complicated kind known as " long 

 lines." The last named are used by the Scotch and North 

 Country fishermen for haddocks, and by many of the 

 American cod-crews ; they are furnished with hooks which 

 vary in size and number, and which like hand and rod 

 lines are baited according to the class of fish sought; 



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