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LABRADOR AND GULF OF SAINT LAWRENCE COD FISHERIES. 143 
but she had used all her salt, and the crew were satisfied with the result. Her fishing days were 
eighteen in number, excluding Sundays, which are always observed by fishermen on this coast. 
“Another craft, also lying alongside and hailing from Notre Dame Bay, was of 60 tons burden, 
her complement twelve men and four boats. She reached the islands off Hopedale (latitude 55° 27’) 
on the 22d of July, fished for six weeks, and took 700 quintals of fish, or about 60 quintals per 
man. She takes her green fish direct to Notre Dame Bay to make there. No fish are made or 
cured on this shore, as yet, north of Long Island Tickle, some 25 miles northwest of Cape Harrison. 
“Hitherto on the Northern Labrador coast the jigger, as already stated, has been almost 
exclusively used; it is only lately that launce have been tried as bait, and with marked success. 
But it is well known that only the smaller sized cod come into shallow water, the larger fish 
remaining to feed on the banks outside and in deeper water. Very few attempts have been made 
to fish on the Labrador Banks, but when tried, I have been assured by trustworthy persons that 
large fish have always been taken with bait. 
“ Larger boats than those used about the islands are required for this kind of fishing ; indeed, 
a totally different organization and equipment will be necessary for the Northern Labrador bank 
fishery, which appears destined to become, under proper encouragement and management, the 
fishery of the future.” 
The Gloucester Telegraph of March 19, 1842, says: 
“In 1807 four vessels fitted out at Newburyport for the Labrador cod fishery. ‘These were the 
first vessels from the United States that made their fares in Esquimaux Bay.” 
Lorenzo Sabine, in his report on the American fisheries, published in 1852, gives the following 
account of the Labrador fishery as carried on at that time: 
“The first American vessel which was fitted for the Labrador fishery sailed from Newburyport 
towards the close of the last century. The business, once undertaken, was pursued with great 
energy, and several hundred vessels were engaged in it annually previous to the war of 1812. A 
voyage to Labrador, unlike a trip to the Banks of Newfoundland, is not without pleasant incidents 
even to landsmen. The coast is frequented for a distance of 10 or 12 degrees of latitude. It 
has been preferred to any other on account of its security, and a general certainty of affording a 
supply of fish. Arriving in some harbor early in June, an American vessel is moored, and remains 
quietly at anchor until a full ‘fare’ has been obtained, or until the departure of the fish requires 
the master to seek another inlet. The fishing is done entirely in boats, and the number usually 
employed is one for about thirty tons of the vessel’s register. Here, under the management of an 
experienced and skilful master, everything may be rendered systematic and regular. As soon as 
the vessel has been secured by the necessary anchors, her sails and light rigging are stowed away, 
her decks cleared, her boats fitted, and a day or two spent in fowling and sailing, under color of 
exploring the surrounding waters and fixing upon proper stations for the boats, and the master 
announces to his crew that they must try their luck with the hook and line. Each boat has now 
assigned to it a skipper or master and one man. At the time designated the master departs with 
his boats, to test the qualities of his men and to mark out for them a course for their future 
procedure. 
“The love of power, So common to our race, is exemplified even here, since the skippers of 
these boats, though commanding each but a single man, often assume airs and exercise authority 
which are at once ridiculous and tyrannical; while their ingenuity in explaining the causes of a 
bad day’s work, really occasioned by idleness, or by time spent in shooting sea-birds, frequeutly 
puts the patience and the risibility of the master to a severe trial. If fish are plenty, and not too 
distant from the vessel, the boats are expected, in good weather, to catch two loads in a day. 
