306 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



roomy ; and in this a watertight compartment is built, in 

 which the fish are kept alive until the boat returns to the 

 smack. But this plan can only be adopted in very fine 

 weather, as the water far out in the North Sea is not often 

 smooth enough for it to be carried out satisfactorily. As 

 cod are not only the most valuable fish taken on these 

 lines, but command a specially good price, everything is 

 done to ensure their reaching the market in the finest 

 possible condition, and this can be best accomplished by 

 keeping them alive. They are accordingly placed in the 

 vessel's well as soon as possible after being taken off the 

 hook, having first undergone the operation of puncturing 

 the air-bladder or "sound," which, apparently from the 

 long struggles of the fish to get clear of the hook, becomes 

 unusually inflated, and would often keep it floating in an 

 unnatural position at the surface if it were put into the 

 well in the condition in which it came off the hook. 



The use of welled vessels for keeping the cod alive was 

 first tried in this country in 1712, at Harwich, a port for 

 many years famous as the head-quarters of the home cod- 

 fishery, and still used as a station, although Grimsby has in 

 recent years become the great centre of the English cod 

 supply. It is said that the idea of wells on board ship was 

 'taken from the Dutch fishermen, but it has long been 

 adopted in this country with particular advantage to the cod 

 fishers. " Welled smacks," as they are called, are specially 

 constructed for the purpose, the well not being a large 

 tank fitted into the vessel, but a part of the smack itself. 

 Two strong watertight bulkheads or divisions are built 

 entirely across the vessel from keelson to deck, enclosing a 

 large space in the centre of the vessel ; this is the " well," 

 and a constant supply and circulation of water direct from 

 the sea is kept up through large auger holes bored in the 



