156 HISTORY AND M#THODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
before the vessel is reached, every stroke of the oars must be as strong as the one which preceded, 
or the boat goes astern instead of ahead.” 
On the Western Bank, where two sets are generally made daily, and on the Grand Bank, 
when this is done, the dories make their second trip in the forenoon and haul in the middle of the 
afternoon. =~ 
5. THE CARE OF THE FISH. 
The manner of dressing the fish is essentially the same as that practiced on the George’s-men 
and the dory hand-liners. It is graphically described in the journal of Capt. D. E. Collins: 
“First premising that a ‘deck of fish’ means the fish that are on the deck at one time, a good 
catch being spoken of as a good deck, I will proceed to explain how a deck of fish is dressed down 
and salted. " 
“Generally we ‘rig up’ two gangs on deck, though on special occasions we may have three. 
A splitting-table is put up on each side of the vessel abaft the main rigging and held in its place 
by shipping one of its ends on a cleat or a pair of pins in the rail, while the other is kept in posi- 
tion by a board brace placed against the bottom of the waist. By this arrangement the tables can 
be put up or taken down in afew moments. In rough weather they are stowed away to keep them 
from being washed overboard. The dressing-tubs, which are halves of large molasses hogsheads, 
are placed near the splitting-tables, abaft the one upon the starboard side and forward of that upon 
the port. A tub partly filled with water is placed at the end of each splitting-table, and into this 
the fish fall as they come from the knife. When there are two gangs, the crew is divided up so 
that there shall be three men in the hold, and three men—the header, gutter, and splitter—in each 
dress-gang, and four idlers, whose duty it is to pitch the fish along and fill the tubs and also to pitch 
the fish out of the washing-tubs into the hold. When there are three gangs, as is the case when 
there is a good deck of fish, there is but one idler, who is, notwithstanding his name, the busiest 
man of the crew. Of the three men in the hold two are salters and one, who is called the ‘devil,’ 
has for his duty the filling of the salt basket and the passing of salt baskets and fish, if necessary, 
to the salters. P 
“The tubs being filled, the header seizes with his left hand a fish by its nose, and hauling it 
along so that the back of its neck lies across the edge of the tub, proceeds to head it. One quick 
downward cut for the throat, a rip down the belly, a quick motion of the knife on either side of the 
head, unjointing the bones, and a “yank” of the left hand, and the head is detached and thrown 
overboard. The gutter grabs the fish by the nape with his left hand, removes the liver, which he 
puts in a basket standing by his side, and throws the guts overboard, passing the fish at the same 
time to the splitter. On Provincetown vessels and on those of some other ports the head is broken 
off by the gutter. The splitter, working at the splitting-table, cuts out the backbone and lets the 
fish fall into the washing-tub. 
“In salting the fish we make the first kench across the forward part of the hold next to the 
water barrels. Some vessels have a bulkhead, against which they salt the first fish. The kench is 
built four or five feet wide fore and aft and wider at the bottom than at the top. Some salters 
take the salt from the baskets and scatter it over the fish with their bare hands, but the majority 
of them prefer to save their hands by using a scoop. 
“No part of the work on a ‘salt trip’ requires so much care and judgment as the salting. The 
salters must have a perfect knowledge of how to test the strength of the salt, know at a glance 
just how much each fish requires and on what part the most is needed. Otherwise the fish either 
come out ‘slack’ and strong-smelling for want of salt, or ‘dry as a chip’ from oversalting. 
