DANGERS OF THE FISHERIES. Ill 



men of narrow escapes from serious disasters while sailing by the wind under too much canvas, and 

 a few instances of loss of vessels, with more or less lives, are on record where they have been cap- 

 sized in this manner. GPhe schooner Angle S. Friend, engaged in the haddock fishery, while beating 

 up Boston harbor in a strong northwest wind, was capsized, and, having filled, sank to the bottom. 

 Part of the crew succeeded in getting into one of the dories ; they were without oars, but fortu- 

 nately drifted ashore. The rest of the men, with the exception of one, who was drowned, climbed 

 to the masthead, which remained above water, and clung there through the night. They were 

 rescued the following morning in an almost senseless condition. The schooner Henrietta Green- 

 leaf, of Gloucester, while making her first passage to the Grand Bank in the spring of 1876, was 

 struck by a squall in the night and knocked on her beam ends, and quickly filled with water. 

 Four of the crew were drowned in the cabin and forecastle. • The rest escaped in two dories, but 

 being without oars they drifted helplessly about. They suffered greatly from exposure to the cold 

 and flying spray. The dories soon separated from each other. One of them was picked up by 

 another fishing vessel, though not until one of the men had died from exposure. The other dory, 

 "with five men, was never heard from. 



The fury with which these squalls sometimes strike can scarcely be comprehended by those 

 who have not witnessed them. The schooner Abby Dodge, which was making a passage to the 

 Grand Bank in December, 1868, was struck by a tornado with such force that, although she was 

 at the time lying-to under a two-reefed foresail, she was knocked nearly on her beam ends, and 

 only by the prompt lowering of the sa,!! was the vessel saved. 



Running- on shoals or bocks. — While making passages to and from the fishing grounds, 

 vessels are liable to strike on shoals or outlying ledges. In that part of the Western Atlantic most 

 frequented by TSew England vessels there are many of these dangerous places, either in the track 

 to the grounds or on the banks themselves. The most remarkable of these shoals, and possibly 

 those which have been the cause of more losses to the fishing fleet than any other, are those of 

 George's Bank. These are but little out of the course of the vessels frequenting George's in ' 

 winter. A small error in the compass may bring a vessel unexpectedly on these shoals. The 

 more prudent fishermen guard against this danger by the careful use of the sounding-lead. It is 

 difficult to tell how extensive these losses have been. Many vessels have had narrow escapes, but 

 the lost ones leave no survivors to tell the tale. 



The shoal of Oashe's Ledge is a source of special danger, as it lies almost directly in the ves- 

 sel's track, both in going to and coming from most of the fishing grounds. Although this ledge is 

 not shoal enough for a vessel to strike under ordinary circumstances, it nevertheless breaks in heavy 

 weather and is therefore extremely dangerous to be encountered at such times. There is no mark, 

 no buoy nor light-ship, to distinguish the shoal places, and it is not easy to tell when the vessel is 

 approaching them. It cannot be wondered at that several disasters have occurred in that vicinity. 



The schooner Rattler, while returning from Newfoundlaad to Gloucester with a trip of frozen 

 herring, on the 17th of January, 1867, passed over this shoal, where she encountered heavy seas 

 which threw her on her beam ends and dismasted her. It was supposed that the schooner John 

 W. Low was lost there in the same gale. 



There is a shoal on the northern part of Brown's Bank on which there is said to be not more 

 than 9 to 14 fathoms of water. This shoal, though not to be dreaded so much as George's or 

 Oashe's Shoals, is, nevertheless, a danger to be carefully avoided. It is in the direct track of the 

 fishing fleets on their way to and from the various banks. Several instances are related in which 

 vessels have met with perilous adventures in that locality and only narrowly escaped deslrnction. 



The long sand-bars that extend out from either end of Sable Island, for a distance of 10 to 12 



