BOATS AND GEAR 235 



but assign them a particular part. The trawler is adapted 

 only to trawling ; but it can trawl in the Atlantic as in 

 the North Sea, on the Newfoundland banks as in the 

 White Sea. The most powerful engine of capture, which 

 is more or less universal, is the otter-trawl, still known in 

 France as the chalut a panneaux (trap- or snare-trawl), 

 chalut a planches (plank-trawl), chalut a plateaux 

 (panel-trawl). All steam trawlers are provided with this 

 net ; hence their name. The trawl consists of a conical 

 bag about 130 feet long and 90 to 100 feet wide. On 

 either side of the opening there are two stout boards, 

 edged with iron, to which the drag-ropes are attached, 

 and attachment is so contrived that the pull upon these 

 ropes, combined with the resistance of the water, separates 

 the boards and holds the net wide open. The width of 

 the boards is usually about 4 feet, but some are as much 

 as 6 feet in width. The otter-trawl costs from ^100 to 

 .120. What renders the otter-trawl so deadly is the fact 

 that the upper edge of the mouth of the net is often as 

 much as 25 feet or more above the bottom. Moreover, 

 the otter-trawl can be towed between two superimposed 

 currents of water. To manipulate the trawl the vessel 

 gets the wind on the beam, so as to keep the side on 

 which the trawl was heaved over to windward. The 

 pocket and the net are first thrown into the water ; then 

 the forward board is lowered, followed by the rear board. 

 The vessel then forges slowly ahead, steering so as to 

 work towards the side on which the trawl was dropped. 

 The two ropes are paid out from the capstan, and are 

 three or four times as long as the water to be fished is 

 deep. While trawling, the speed of the vessel is from 

 2j to 5 knots. 



Next to the otter-trawl comes the beam-trawl. This is 

 the older form of trawl, in which the bag of the net is 



