V 

 THE BANK TRAWL LINE COD FISHERY. 179 



After the evening set the dories were invariably hoisted ou board and stowed in nests, one 

 inside tie other. The dories were hoisted on board by tackles, the hook at one end being caught 

 into the bow-painter of the dory, while at the other end it was hooked into the stern becket. 

 During the daytime, in fine weather, the dories were allowed to tow astern, in order to save the 

 trouble of hoisting them aboard twice during the day. 



ACCIDENTS TO THE TRAWL. There are several ways whereby the trawl may receive injury, 

 and sometimes injury severe enough to compel the owner of it to make a new string. Of these 

 accidents one of the most common is to get the trawl " hung up." During a rough and stormy night 

 the trawl may be swayed about enough to entangle itself in the rocks on the bottom and to resist 

 all attempts at tearing it loose. In this case, the most common practice is to begin hauling from 

 the other end, in the hope that from the opposite side the trawl may be pulled clear from its obstruc- 

 tion. This is occasionally successful. Sometimes, however, the trawl is caught in two places, and 

 when this occurs the part between the obstructions cannot be easily reached. When the trawl is 

 thus hung up the fisherman is compelled to part it, which is done by pulling until it parts or by a 

 hack with the dory-knife. 



If the trawl be out during a heavy storm, so that it is dragged about by the roughness of the 

 sea, it is frequently chafed badly, and in some cases actually broken, by the grinding upon the 

 sharp rocks. This happened to our trawls during our last baiting. The trawls were left out all 

 one stormy night and day. The sea was very rough, so that the trawls were washed about very 

 badly, and when they were finally hauled every dory found the trawls parted, and some had lost 

 two or three tubs. 



Besides being cut up in these ways, the trawls also sometimes suffer from the attacks of 

 sharks or dogfish, which snap it in two with a bite of their sharp-teeth. To guard against any 

 temptation to this, the men never allow the hooks to go down fouled so as to lie upon the ground- 

 line, lest the fish, in taking the bait, cut the ground-line. Sometimes, where several vessels are 

 fishing near one another, one trawl will happen to lie directly across one from another vessel. If 

 then the owner of the under one should haul first he would bring up the upper trawl lying across 

 his own. When this happens he is very liable to take his. knife and cut his neighbor's ground- 

 line, unless he be an extremely kiud-natured fisherman. 



Sometimes the vessel, in swinging around, gets the cable around the buoy line. As she farther 

 swings around something must give, and if the trawl be fast on the bottom in any way the buoy- 

 line is broken in two. To avoid this, the trawls are seldom set close to the vessel, the inner buoys 

 not being dropped till the dory is well clear of any place the cable can reach. 



The men would always venture out in worse weather to haul their trawls than to set them, for 

 they feared in bad weather that the vessel might get adrift in some way, and then they might lose 

 the trawls entirely. I remember of one case where a vessel broke her cable and drifted some dis- 

 tance before the crew became aware of it. These men tried to find their old anchorage, but, though 

 they spent several days in cruising over the spot, they lost the whole of their gear. 



/. THE CAEE OF THE FISH. 



UNLOADING THE DORIES. Usually between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning the loud cry 

 of "Dory!" brought the skipper and the crew from the interior of the vessel, often interrupting a 

 pleasant morning snooze. The dory from which this cry had proceeded was pulled alongside the 

 vessel amidships, and there kept in place by the cook's hold upon the forward painter and the 

 skipper's on the stern painter. Meanwhile the fish were thrown upon the vessel's deck by the 

 two men in the dories ; pitched up heartlessly over the side by a pew, and often falling heavily 



