PAL Lie 
THE COD, HADDOCK, AND HAKE FISHERIES. 
1—THE BANK HAND-LINE COD FISHERY. 
By G. BRowN GOODE AND J. W. COLLINS. 
1. EARLY HISTORY. 
Since the earliest days of the discovery of America there has been an extensive fishery with 
hand-lines for cod upon the Grand Bank of Newfoundland and the neighboring banks. In the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and in the first half of the present century the fishing was 
carried on from the decks of the vessels in the same manner as is now the common practice on 
George’s Bank. This method was continued to a limited extent until 1860, and there were in 
1880 still a few vessels that followed this fishery. These were manned by old-fashioned fishermen 
from the coast of Maine. Cod hand-lining, at the present time, is carried on almost entirely from 
dories. 
The introduction of the practice of hand-lining from dories on the Banks appears to have 
taken place between the years 1855 and 1858, though these little boats had long been used in the 
fisheries near the shore.* P 
The following history of hand-lining from dories in Maine was prepared by Mr. Earll: 
The first vessel in this section to take dories for going out from the vessel to fish with hand- 
lines was the schooner American Eagle, of Southport, Capt. Michael Read, in 1858. Mr. Daniel 
Cameron says that they had been fishing with dories in Massachusetts only a year or two-at this 
time, and that the idea originated with the fishermen of Marblehead. 
The American Eagle sailed about April 10, in company with the schooner Ceylon, for Banque- 
reau, and by the 10th of June had a full trip of 900 quintals, while the Ceylon, fishing from deck, 
had only 160 quintals. 
On starting for home the American Eagle Ient her dories to the Ceylon, which in turn began 
filling up very rapidly, and arrived home July 4 with 600 quintals. 
The following season a number of the Southport vessels carried dories, and it was thought 
that they averaged one-third more fish in the same time than vessels hand-lining from deck, while 
the fish averaged about the same in size, about two-thirds large for each method. 
~ In 1860, according to Mr. A. P. Hodgdon, North Booth Bay sent her first vessel with dories 
for hand-lining, and Booth Bay Harbor began about the same time. 
*The Barnstable Patriot, May 10, 1859, says: ‘It is becoming a custom quite general among the Grand Bank cod 
fishermen to take dories with them upon the fishing grounds, and fish in them at a short distance from their vessels. 
Codfish will often take a hook from a dory while they will not notice a hook from the vessel anchored within a rod 
from the boat. * * * The motion of the boat, giving a quicker movement to the hook, renders it more attractive 
to the fish than that from the vessel. It is a great change of habit in fish, thus to desert the vessel for the dory.” 
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