LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 



SAILS SPREAD FOR A RUN TO THE, GRAND BANKS 



ican vessels and the broader allurements 

 of shore recreations in large ports. 



Some few marry and settle down in 

 American fishing ports, but the majority 

 keep in touch with their birthplaces and 

 journey home once or twice a year. 



BOTH FARMER AND FISHERMAN ARE 

 WEATHER GAMBEERS 



Ashore, the Bank fisherman is not con- 

 spicuous. He talks, acts, and speaks 

 pretty much as any other class of Amer- 

 ican worker. He is neither ignorant nor 

 uneducated, nor does he interlard his 

 speech with nauticalisms or wear his sea- 

 boots and oil-skins when strolling up- 

 town. The average deep-sea fisherman 

 of today is merely a healthy, level- 

 headed, intelligent class of skilled worker 

 who regards his particular vocation 

 pretty much as the farmer does his, and 

 the two are much akin. Both are gam- 

 blers, with livelihoods dependent upon 

 the weather. 



But it is at sea that the Bank fisherman 

 manifests his distinctiveness, and the 

 splendid inherited qualities of the type 

 are seen to advantage — daring, initiative, 

 skill in seamanship, and ability to endure 

 long hours of heavy labor and the rigors 

 of seafaring in small vessels during the 



varying conditions of weather on the 

 North Atlantic. 



It may be said that he is no different 

 from the European fisherman in this re- 

 spect ; but comparisons will show consid- 

 erable differences. The deep-sea fisher- 

 man of Europe has practically outgrown 

 sail, and works on powerful steam-trawl- 

 ers, where ability to run a winch, haul 

 and heave a trawl-net, use a netting nee- 

 dle, and dress and box fish are practically 

 all that is required of him. On the few 

 sailing smacks operating nowadays in 

 European waters the trawl-net is also 

 used as well as hook and line and drift- 

 net. All the work is done on board the 

 vessel. 



DORY FISHING MAKES THE AMERICAN 

 DISTINCTIVE 



In the North American fisheries the 

 fast-sailing and sea-worthy schooner still 

 remains as the prime means of produc- 

 ing fish from the Western Atlantic 

 "banks," and the greater part of the fish- 

 ing is done from small boats, known as 

 dories, which are carried by the schooner 

 and launched upon the fishing grounds. 



It is this dory fishing which makes the 

 xAmerican fisherman, and by that term I 

 include Canadian and Newfoundlander, a 



