In the last years of the 19th century, the port of Saint-Pierre outfitted 

 about 200 two-masters, almost all for the bank fishery. Each of them 

 used from 6 to 8 dories. Because of this small capacity, these vessels 

 made three or four trips from Saint-Pierre bank to unload their catches, 

 renewing their bait, herring, capelin, or squid, according to the season. 



The average catch for a two-masted vessel for a season was 1800 to 

 2000 metric hundredweight. Drying of cod was done in all the colony. 



Outfitting the vessels and preparing the cod landed at Saint- Pierre re- 

 quired the annual importing for the fishing season of about 2000 sailors and 

 shore workers from France. While the metropolitan vessels had to land at 

 Saint-Pierre to provision with bait and unload cod, the custom of transport- 

 ing these seasonal passengers continued. 



But the situation changed aspect with the Bait-Bill, with the use of 

 Buccinus for bait, and the increase in tonnage which was one of the conse- 

 quences, so that little by little the three-masted vessels abstained from all 

 landings at Saint-Pierre. It was necessary to find another solution. This 

 was accomplished by packet-boats especially built for the purpose which 

 carried 1000 to 1500 men a trip. These massive embarkations aroused, in 

 the little town of Saint-Pierre, for some days, extraordinary excitement. 

 It was not, unhappily, without being accompanied by regrettable and danger- 

 ous excesses, mostly in an astonishing consumption of alcohol. 



The rapid increase in the fleet of two- masted vessels did not hinder 

 the development of outfittings for the small coastal fishery, with eventual 

 extension to the Gulf fishery. About the same time, the latter equipped 

 about 400 wherries and dories and some 20 larger boats called pirogues . 

 The long-boats and barks had disappeared. The coastal fishery was and 

 still is practiced by the men of Saint-Pierre, the Isle de Marins, and 

 Miquelon. The handline is used. Jigging is forbidden. The baits used are 

 the ordinary seasonally- available baits, herring taken in small quantities 

 about the islands, capelin and squid; also the sand lance taken at Miquelon. 

 But the preferred bait for this fishery is the mussel, which abounds in the 

 Great Pond of Miquelon and the coves of Langlade, and which may be used 

 during the whole fishing season. This bait, of which the cod is very fond, 

 cannot be used for the line trawl fishery for it is too soft. 



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