line. The size of the long-boat was augmented in proportion and its crew 

 increased from 5 to 7 men. 



In 1875, the French fishery first tried to replace the heavy and cumber- 

 some long-boats by dories, light boats of American invention, which hadbeen 

 used for a long time by the American sailors. 



Very stable and sea-worthy in spite of their flat bottom, the dories, man- 

 ned by two men and sometimes, as by the Portuguese, by one man, are so 

 light that one can easily load them, each night, on the deck. Piled one on an- 

 other, they present a minimum encumbrance in the operation of the cod ves- 

 sel. 



The results were so conclusive that after a few years all the French ves- 

 sels were equipped with dories. This brought about a marked change in the 

 fishery. The trawls became shorter, but as they were now much more nu- 

 merous, the catching capacity of each vessel was increased considerably. 



During the same period, innovations in materials used in fishing con- 

 tributed to another increase in the yield. The old French silver-plated iron 

 hooks were replaced by steel hooks of English, Norwegian, or French manu- 

 facture. The substitution of cotton for hemp in making the line trawls re- 

 sulted in lighter lines of equal strength. 



During the period of the 19th century which followed the adoption of line 

 trawl fishing by the French, fishing techniques benefitted from other impor- 

 tant improvements in equipment and rigging of the vessels. 



Following the practice of Captain Sabot, the outfitters had to supply their 

 vessels with strong hempen anchor cables, long enough to permit them to 

 anchor on the banks with good holding conditions, that is to say, a length of 

 cable two to three times the depth. 



To avoid, or at least diminish, the wear of the cables through the hawse- 

 holes, the openings of these were improved and provided with a lead collar. 

 At the same time the old capstan, which had become an engine of torture in 

 the new way of fishing, was progressively improved and modified and finally 

 replaced, on most of the Newfoundland vessels, by a motor winch. 



In spite of all precautions to insure the preservation of the hempen an- 

 chor cable, it deteriorated rapidly and had, besides, the fault of being very 



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