8 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
The ballast, of which a vessel of 80 tons would carry 28 to 40 tons, is usually stone or shingle, 
though some vessels are partly ballasted with iron. In all cases it is covered with a plank floor 
(2 to 24 inches thick) laid on sleepers, and firmly secured by stanchions, which extend from the 
deck-beams to the ice-house floor, forming the frame-work of the pens. In the forward part of the 
hold, and communicating with the forecastle by a door, is arranged the store-room for provisions, 
fuel, and water (as shown in the diagram), and this is separated from the ice-house by a double 
bulkhead of unplaned boards, having tarred paper between them. The store-room, which is also 
the cook’s pantry, usually has a floor just high enough to cover a tier of water-barrels stowed 
each side the keelson, when larger casks are not used. In most, if not in all, halibut schooners the 
ice-house is divided into two sections by a bulkhead running across it aft of the mainmast. By 
this arrangement one portion of the ice-house can be kept closed while the other is being filled. 
It is still further subdivided into “pens,” a series of five or six of which are constructed on each 
side of a passage-way in the center of the ice-house, which is called the “slaughter-house,” though 
this specific name generally applies more directly to those portions of the passage-way immediately 
beneath the hatch-ways. This “slaughter-house” is so arranged that it can be divided into pens, 
five or six in number, corresponding to those on each side, and these are called “slaughter-house” 
pens. This ice-house, with its compartments, fifteen to eighteen in number, will hold from 35 to 
50 tons of ice in a vessel of 80 tons register, and from 75,000 to 115,000 pounds of halibut packed in 
ice. While fishing is being carried on, the pens are, in succession, emptied of the ice, its place being 
supplied by layers of halibut packed in ice, as will be described further on. The order in which 
the pens are emptied of ice and filled with halibut varies upon different vessels, but as a general 
rule the side pens are first occupied, beginning with the after ones in the forward section of the 
ice-house. It should be stated that the slaughter-house is not often completely filled with ice ex- 
cept on rare occasions in summer, since this is the passage-way by which access is gained to the 
pens, on either side. By the arrangement which has just been described, the vessel is provided 
essentially with two distinct ice-houses, called the forward and after ice-houses—the former reached 
through the main hatch, the latter through the after hatch. The forward ice-house is usually filled 
first, the after one being kept closed, and, when the forward ice-house is full, it is closed and the 
after ice-house is opencd. In many cases, however, it may be necessary to pack some of the hali- 
but in the after ice-house before the forward one is filled, in order to keep the vessel in proper trim. 
In common with the vessels engaged in the salt-halibut fishery and those trawling for cod on 
the Banks, the halibut vessels have their main deck fitted up with an arrangement of planks called 
the checker-boards, dividing the deck into small pens or bins by planks crossing each other at right 
angles. The space occupied by this construction, which is called the checker-board or “ Checkers,” 
is the whole width of the vessel, from 21 to 23 feet, and a length of about 20 to 25 feet forward of. 
the quarter deck, extending from the break of the quarter nearly to the fore-hatch. These com- 
partments are divided by 2-inch plank set on edge. These planks are generally 8 to 10 inches 
wide. Tifere are also nailed to the top of the planks extending fore and aft (and on some vessels 
on the athwartship planks also) other planks in a horizontal position 8 to 12 inches wide, forming 
covers over the lateral edges of the bins. The object of these compartments is to prevent the fish 
sliding from side to side as the vessel rolls in a sea way. , 
The top of the house is fitted up with bait planks. These planks are 2 inches thick and 10 to 
12 inches wide, nailed round the sides and ends of the top of the house. The object of this is to 
provide a place where the men can cut up bait without marring the wood work of the vessel. 
The accompanying diagram, which shows a deck plan of a halibut schooner, will assist the 
reader in a better understanding of the peculiar arrangement just described. The following is 
