UEE ON THE GRAND BANKS 



19 



A BIG COMBER 

 The Bank fishing-schooner will make "good weather" of a hard gale and mountainous sea. 



fishing gear. Each man has his dory- 

 mate and his particular dory and they 

 divide the work between them. It is in- 

 cumbent upon them to have their lines 

 in good shape and their dory properly 

 equipped when the skipper sings out, 

 "Bait up !", the schooner having reached 

 the Bank to be fished. 



Six to eight tubs, or skates, of gear 

 have to be kept in order and baited by 

 the two dory-mates — a task which calls 

 for much skill and deftness of fingers, 

 when some 2,000 hooks have to be baited 

 with pieces of herring, squid, or capelin 

 every time a "set" is made. 



the sounding lead is the: skipper's 

 other eye 



The passage to the Banks may be a run 

 of from fifty to five hundred miles and it 

 is usually made in the quickest possible 

 time. 



When the vessel has run her distance, 

 the "spot" the skipper has been making 

 for is found by the lead. The sounding 

 lead is a fishing skipper's other eye and 

 he is usually an adept in determining his 

 position by means of it. 



While there are many fishing captains 

 who can navigate by solar and stellar ob- 

 servations, yet the majority find their 

 way about by dead-reckoning, using com- 

 pass, chart, log, and lead, and their ac- 

 curacy is often startling. 



The sample of the bottom brought up 

 by the soap or tallow on the lead and the 

 depth of water give most skippers an 

 exact position after two casts. 



If the gear has been baited and the 

 weather is favorable, the skipper sings 

 out, "Dories over !" The dory-mates 

 who hold the two top dories on the port 

 and starboard "nests" prepare their boats 

 for going overside by shipping the 

 thwarts and jamming the bottom-plugs in. 



Oars, pen-boards, bailer, water- jar, 

 bait-knife, gurdy-winch, bucket, gaff, sail 

 and mast, and all other boat and fishing 

 impedimenta are placed in each little craft, 

 and it is swung up out of the nest and 

 overside by means of tackles depending 

 from the fore and main shrouds. 



setting the tines 



Two fishermen secure their tubs of 

 baited lines and jump into the dory, which 



