180 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
upon the upturned edge of the plank forming the checker-boards. As a rule, most of the dories 
reached the vessel at about the same time, and unloaded their cargoes as fast as there was a place 
for them to haul alongside. In some instances, however, one dory, or two, might be unusually 
delayed by a larger haul, or missing the buoy, or various other causes of detention. When a dory 
was unloaded it was allowed to float astern, being made fast by a hitch of the painter around the 
davit. a 
APPARATUS.—The operation of dressing began after all the men had returned to the vessel, 
excepting, occasionally, when one dory might be unusually delayed. In dressing the fish the crew 
were divided into two parts, each of which performed similar operations. Their apparatus was 
extremely simple, consisting of a large tub and a table; also the requisite supply of knives to be 
used in cutting up the fish. The tub was a large hogshead sawed off somewhat above the middle. 
The table, which was capable of being removed at any time, was composed of several boards held 
together by cleats upon the lower side. This table, as well as the tub, was placed by the vessel’s 
side. At one end it was supported by the rail of the vessel, confined there by a piece of joist nailed 
to the rail and fitting betwecu two flat pieces of board securely fastened to the table, and sepa- 
rated from one another by the width of the joist. The inner end of this table was supported by a 
board which ran from its under side to the angle of the deck and the vessel’s bulwark. On the side 
of the table on which the tub was placed was a cleat, standing two inches high, which served to 
prevent the fish and the viscera from falling while the dressing was being performed, and in the cen- 
ter, toward the inner end, was a second cleat used to hold the fish during the work of the splitter. 
Tn order to escape the inconvenience of left-handed movements the relative positions of the 
tub and table, and positions of the men in splitting, were on one side the reverse of those on the 
other. On the starboard side the two stood between the house and the bulwarks, the table just 
aft the main rigging. On the port side the table occupied the same position, and the tub stood 
just under the main rigging. 
Two kinds of knives were used for the different operations. The throater was provided with 
a sharp-pointed and strong keen-edged knife of fine steel. The splitter had a knife rounded on 
tho end with curved blade and of very fine steel. These knives were different from the bait-knives, 
the latter being of more varying kinds. 
THE PROCESS OF SPLITTING.— When all hands are in readiness to dress the fish, the splitting 
tables are taken from their perch on the liver-butts and fastened up in their places. The tub is 
also put in its place ready for the header. One man, called the “idler,” now fills the tubs, and then 
active work begins. The “ throater,” standing by the side of the tub farthest from fhe table, now 
takes a cod from the tub, seizing the fish’s jaw in his left hand. He lifts the fish up to the edge 
of the tub and poises him there, belly upward, on the supra-occipital bone. With the well sharp- 
ened and pointed knife in his right hand, he makes a transverse cut across the throat, just behind 
the gills. Introducing the knife at this opening he cuts down the belly, laying open the abdominal 
cavity, and making also one cut on each side downward he separates the head from the sides, and, 
with another, separates all the viscera of the belly from those of the head. Finally, still holding 
the fish thus poised, he presses with his right hand upon the fish’s belly, and breaks off the body 
from the head at the first vertebra. The fish then falls into the tub, and the fisherman cuts the skin 
of the head through, when it does not break off of itself, and then throws it into the sea. The first 
is followed by a second and a third, till all the fish in the tub have been beheaded and opened. 
On the opposite side of the tub, between it and the table and close to the vessel’s side, stands 
the “gutter.” He, taking the headless fish from the tub, hauls them upon the splitting-table. With 
his left hand he opens the abdominal cavity and with the other tears loose all the organs contained 
