FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK, 93 



Halibut Fishing Among the Ice Floes. 



BY J. W. COLLINS. 



It is not unusual, after a Winter of exceptional severity, for large masses 

 of field ice to drift across the eastern fishing banks, especially Banquereau 

 and the Grand Bank. This was especially the case in the Springs of 1875 

 and 1876, when, for several weeks, a large portion of the fishing grounds 

 frequented by the halibut fishermen was inaccessible to them. Many singu- 

 lar adventures were experienced by the crews of the ice-beleaguered vessels, 

 which still form the subject of conversation among the fishermen. The 

 inconvenience and peril, which was felt very severely at first by the fisher- 

 men, was, however, more than counterbalanced ; for there can be no ques- 

 tion but what these floes of drifting ice hastened the discovery of the " Deep 

 Water " halibut grounds, which have since that time yielded such a rich har- 

 vest. At any rate, the practice of fishing in deep water on the Banks by 

 the halibut fleet dates from the time and circumstances which are here 

 described, though one or two vessels had made previous trials. 



The writer was in the sch. Howard in the Spring of 1875, and the account 

 here given of events connected with the appearance of the immense ice floe, 

 and also of icebergs, upon the Grand Bank, is principally taken from a 

 letter describing some of the incidents of that occasion. 



We were detained from sailing on our second trip that winter (1874-5) 

 by easterly winds for two weeks or more, and when we reached the Grand 

 Bank, about the middle of March, the whole of the Bank north of lat. 44 

 deg. 25 min. N., was covered with heavy masses of field ice. About the 

 time we arrived on the ground the fish left, probably being driven by the 

 ice floes which slowly moved southward, reaching at one time as far south 

 as lat. 43 deg. 40 min. N., in the middle of the Bank, and causing the fish- 

 ermen much anxiety and more or less loss of gear, by unexpectedly drifting 

 on their anchored vessels during the night. On one occasion a number of 

 vessels tried to skirt the ice and get around it, so as to reach the northwest 

 part of the Bank, but towards night of the day on which the attempt was 

 made, a northeast gale and heavy snowstorm came .on, and we all lay to 

 under the lee of the ice, which made the sea quite smooth. The next day 

 we found the floe had been driven so far south by the gale that we did not 

 again attempt to get by to the northwest of it, but eight vessels having met 

 together at the southern edge of the ice, all of the skippers went on board 

 of the sch. Augusta H.Johnson to talk over the situation. After deliberating 



