24 



dred years. The following is an exact representation of the model 

 and rig of the "old banker," one of which appears in the tank at the 

 Gloucester department of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 



MODEL OF GRAND BANKER OF 1741. 



About seventy of these schooners were owned in Gloucester in 

 1741, and nearly all of them were probably engaged in the Grand 

 Bank fishery. In the fishing voyages, it was the custom for the men 

 to go, as it was called, " on their own hook :" that is, an account 

 was kept of the fish caught by each man ; and, at the end of the 

 voyage, the proceeds were distributed accordingly. The reason for 

 such a practice is sufficiently apparent in the account of a seasons' 

 work by one crew on the Grand Bank in 1757. In that 3 r ear, the 

 Sch'r "Abigail," Capt. Paul Hughes, made three trips in about six 

 months, and fished, in all, sixty-seven days, with the following result 

 as to the number of codfish caught by each one of her crew of six 

 men: Paul Hughes, 6643 ; B. Foster, 5000; Job Galloway, 4244 ; 

 Nathaniel Day, 3929 ; Rufus Stacy, 3784 ; William Smith, 3435. 



Notwithstanding the discouragements of the twent}' years immedi- 

 ately preceding the reduction of Canada, growing out of the wars of 

 that period, and occasional losses by shipwreck, there was no abate- 

 ment of the energy with which the people of the town pursued the 

 fishery. During that time it became the basis of a considerable for- 

 eign trade which was not only profitable to the merchants, but bene- 

 ficial to the fishermen in giving them winter employment. In the 

 latter years of the period now under consideration, we find Glouces- 

 ter vessels making voyages to Cadiz, Bilbao, Lisbon, and different 



