LABRADOR AND GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE COD FISHERIES. 147 



remained a few days, and when they struck the fishermen had to work pretty hard to get their trip 

 before the fish left. 



During the height of the season, fifteen to twenty -five days, the men would "turn out a little 

 after 2 in the morning and fish until about 11 at night." They used what they called "set lines," 

 which were merely hand-lines tied to the side of the boat and reaching to the bottom ; and "jigs" 

 for fishing near the surface, made on something the same principle of the mackerel jigs. While 

 fishing at the bottom with u set lines" they frequently caught large cod, but with the jigs they 

 often got the small ones as fast as they could haul them^and had an arrangement for slatting them 

 from the hook to save time. 



Among the first vessels to go to Labrador was the schooner Angler, Capt. Thomas Pinkham, 

 belonging to Wiscasset, while the smallest one that ever went from this section was the schooner 

 Frederick Reed, of East Booth Bay, being only 45 tons, old measurement. 



Most of the fishing towns in Eastern Maine engaged in the Labrador fisheries to a greater or 

 less extent during the early part of the present century. The fishermen of Vinal Haven (one of 

 the Fox Islands) began to visit Labrador about 1805. They did not pursue this fishery with much 

 regularity, sending two or three vessels some seasons, and perhaps none for several years in suc- 

 cession. No vessels went after 1840. Lamoine, .Maine, sent two vessels, 65 and 67 tons respect- 

 ively, to Labrador in 1850, but has never at any other time engaged in the cod fishery of that 

 locality. 



Capt. J. S. Mayo, of Tremont, Maine, says that the Labrador cod fishery was pursued by the 

 fishermen of Mount Desert and the adjacent islands as early as the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury. The fishery prospered until 1839, after which time it declined and was finally abandoned about 

 1845. The reasons that induced the fishermen of Mount Desert to give up this branch of the fishery 

 were (1) the shortness of the season, (2) the uncertainty of obtaining bait, without a full supply of 

 which it was impossible to procure a fare of codfish, and (3) the small size of the fish taken and 

 consequent low market value of the same. 



The fleet belonging at Southwest Harbor and Cranberry Islands that fished on the Labrador 

 coast in 1839 numbered eight schooners, namely: the Brainard of 78 tons, Temperance of 56 tons, 

 (from Cranberry Islands); Four Sisters of 35 tons, Bannister, 68 tons, Eratus, 46 tons, James, 70 

 tons, Sea Serpent, 75 tons, and Leo of 56 tons, (from Southwest Harbor), the total tonnage em- 

 ployed being 484 tons, old measurement. These vessels were usually engaged in the Magdalen 

 herring-fishery in the spring; making one trip for herring before starting for the Labrador coast. 



According to Capt. E. B. Stanley, of Cranberry Islands, the Labrador cod fishery revived 

 somewhat after 1845, and in 1857 three schooners owned at Cranberry Islands engaged in bringing 

 home a total of 2,100 quintals of codfish. 



The fishery was kept up by two or three vessels until 1862, since which time no one at Mount 

 Desert has engaged in it. 



Mr. W. E. Hadlock states that the first vessel which went to Labrador from the Cranberry 

 Islands was a schooner of about 40 tons, under command of Capt. Samuel Hadlock. This trip was 

 made in 1810. The fish were cured at Cranberry Island, after which they were loaded on board 

 of the same vessel that had caught them, and carried to Spain. 



The schooner Starlight, of Cranberry Island, made a cod fishing trip in 1862 to Bellesimore 

 Bank, off the coast of Labrador. She secured a good fare of large fish, but the prospects were not 

 sufficiently encouraging for her or others to engage in the same fishery afterwards. 



