270 THE OCEAN RIVER 



fisherman has two Hnes. A good fisherman is able to take as 

 many as three hundred and fifty to four hundred per day, but 

 that greatly tires the arms. If they did this every day they 

 would not be able to stand it. 



'There are ships that will be fortunate enough to complete 

 their fishery in a month to six weeks, others will be three to 

 five months. None ever anchor upon the Banks but have a 

 little square sail by day at the stern that keeps them into the 

 wind to prevent drift. For the night they set their mainsail all 

 on one side that they may drift all alike and avoid collisions. 

 The Grand Bank is rarely without mist or fog, which is some- 

 time so thick that one cannot see from one end of the ship to 

 the other." 



The persistence of the maritime ports of France and Eng- 

 land in developing the fisheries of the New World was as 

 heroic as any exploit of the conquistadors to the south, though 

 the small monetary gains involved added nothing much to the 

 incentive. Fortunately for France and England, the very nature 

 of the hazard was a challenge that kept the enterprises alive. 

 After weeks of buffeting the winter's-end westerly gales along 

 the reaches of the Atlantic drift, one day at long last the small 

 vessel would smell the cold fog of the Banks and see the first 

 gulls drift in with their sharp crying and perch on the spars. 

 In spite of the rivalry of nation and nation and the desire for 

 each captain to fill and pay away for home and the early mar- 

 kets, a remarkable amount of teamwork was necessary to avoid 

 the dangers of fog and drifting ice, and sudden northwesterly 

 gales that came ripping off the cold continental plains. 



This teamwork even extended to the shore stations where 

 the ships that fished on into summer in the Newfoundland 

 waters made for land to establish huts and drying stations for 

 the stockfish or Poor John. The lucky vessels that caught the 

 big green cod of the Banks in early season salted wet and 

 drove for home. But the majority of the fleet took their catch 

 to land and sun-dried and salted the split fish for carriage to 



