cumbersome. In order to diminish the diameter without losing strength, 

 some outfitters tried, about 1842, a mixed cable, made partly of hemp and 

 partly of metal. Satisfied with the result, the Fecamp outfitters adopted in 

 1848 the iron anchor chain, the use of this becoming general in the following 

 years on cod vessels as well as other ships, with the adaptation on the cap- 

 stan of a toothed drum around which the anchor chain rolled without any pos- 

 sibility of slipping, each of the links engaging exactly. 



Many of the modern American and Canadian schooners still used during 

 the 20th century in the bank fishery, the hemp anchor cable which holds the 

 great advantage, in anchoring in all weather, of great elasticity. These ves- 

 sels, making only short trips, can accomodate the cumbersome hemp cables, 

 which are coiled on each side of the deck. 



At about the same time, the three-masted rigging which succeeded the 

 two-masters in the Newfoundland fishery benefitted from many successive 

 transformations, the most important result of which was the replacement of 

 the main topsails, difficult and dangerous to furl in bad weather, by double 

 topsails. Also the iron cable, then steel, replaced hemp for many uses. The 

 mainstays and shrouds in particular became metal. So, aside from the a- 

 doption of dories, the fishing technique of the sailing vessels remained about 

 the same, the various improvements in equipment of the vessels permitting 

 an increased yield for an equal number of men. 



Since the general adoption of trawl fishing, from about 1815, the pursuit 

 of the cod fishery by vessels from France was affected by two primary fac- 

 tors: the bait question and the tonnage of the vessels. 



In the first years of this new fishery, outfitters and captains paid little 

 attention to the quality of bait used. They continued to use, as during the 

 three centuries of hand line fishing, the same diversity of bait: salted her- 

 ring and mackerel from France, then, after exhausting this small supply, 

 heads and entrails of cod, sometimes sea birds, and occasionally squid. 



But the captains soon realized that the enormous improvement in the 

 yield which came from substituting the trawls for the hand line still left a 

 margin important to progress as far as bait was concerned; for the cod, in 

 spite of its legendary voracity, nevertheless had preferences. 



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