452 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
were usually set in a string, but with the strong tides it has been found more desirable to set 
them separately. The depth to which they are sunk is regulated by straps, attached to a wooden 
float, which are placed at short intervals along their entire length and vary from a few feet to 6 
fathoms. These floats hold the net in proper position, and, by shortening or lengthening the 
strings, it can be set at any required depth. Anchors are also attached to each end to hold the 
net in position, and, in addition, each is provided with a watch-buoy having a long line attached, so 
that if the net should be carried to the bottom by the weight of the fish this will still float at the 
surface and enable the fishermen to haul it up. 
Each fisherman usually supplies himself with two nets. These are usually 24-inch mesh, 30 
fathoms long, and 150 meshes deep. The webbing costs about $9, but when properly tanned, hung, 
and provided with buoys and buoy-lines a net costs little short of $20. The man is then said to be 
properly “ geared,” and is ready to ship in one of the vessels for the fishery. 
The catch is very irregular, and no estimate could be given of a day’s catch, for at times 
almost no fish are secured, while at others the nets are so heavily loaded that they sink to the 
bottom and are not strong enough to hold the weight of the fish in bringing them to the surface. 
Men have been known to catch nothing for weeks together, while a crew of five men have made 
$500 in a single night. The average season’s work for two men is said to be from 120,000 to 
250,000 fish to the boat, selling at 25 cents per hundred, which would be a fair average for several 
consecutive years. The best fishermen can make $250, while the average, after taking out the 
vessel’s one-seventh loss of nets and material for mending, is said to be only $150. The nets 
usually last two and, with care, three seasons; but a large catch of fish injures them greatly, and 
they are often lost altogether, so that one must allow $25 each season for replacing them. 
6. PRESERVING THE FISH. 
METHODS OF FREEZING AND PACKING THE FISH.—As soon as the vessel has been properly 
moored in one of the many coves convenient to the fishing grounds, part of the ballast is 
thrown overboard, the remainder being retained until it becomes certain that a full cargo can be 
secured. The hold is then sheathed up around the sides to prevent the frozen fish from being 
injured by coming in contact with the salt plank which forms the ceiling of the vessel ; or, occa- 
sionally, it is thoroughly dried by the use of lime. A platform is built in the bottom of the hold, 
being raised from a few inches to a foot above the keelson, so that the fish may be out of the way 
of injury from any water that may be in the hold. Two bulkheads or partitions are placed across 
the forward part of the hold to separate it from the forecastle. These are about five or six inches 
apart, and the space between them is carefully packed with sawdust or straw to prevent the heat 
of the stove from entering the hold and injuring the fish. If the fish are to be frozen on the ves- 
sel, which is frequently the case at Newfoundland, a large scaffold of rough boards is built for the 
purpose.* 
*Capt. D. E. Collins, in an unpublished letter, describes the erection of the scaffold used in freezing herring on 
shipboard in the following language: 
“In the first place the tacks of the foresail and mainsail are come up with, and the lace-lines on the boom are 
unreeved and the sails furled to the gaffs. They are then hoisted so as to be above the scaffold, when it is built, 
about six feet. The scaffold is placed six feet or more above the deck. To build the scaffold a piece of scantling or 
joist is lashed from the fore to the main rigging on each side, and another extends on each side from the main rigging 
to the end of the davits. These are blocked up forward, if necessary. This being done, the fore and main booms are 
raised so as to form a middle support. From these side pieces small joists, generally two by four inches thick and 
about twenty feet in length, are laid to the booms, overlapping them about five fect. These pieces are placed all 
along, with about two and one-half feet space between them—the whole width of a scaffold, on a large-sized vessel, 
being about thirty feet—and the ends of the joists projecting over the vessel’s side about three feet, These being 
