28 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



seasons and to run in and purchase it at 

 the lowest price and without the loss of 

 too much time, and his good judgment is 

 called for a hundred times during a 

 voyage. 



To be at once a navigator, a sailor, a 

 fisherman, a diplomat, and a business man 

 makes of the American Bank fishing 

 skipper an outstanding type, and the most 

 of them are splendid fellows. They earn 

 good money, but deserve every penny 

 of it. 



the: salt Fisherman's ufe is easier 



While we have taken the market Banker 

 as a study in the foregoing, the salt Bank 

 fisherman and halibuter present but little 

 differences. The fishing is carried on from 

 dories in a somewhat similar manner, but 

 the salt fishermen, as a rule, take life 

 easier. The season for salt fishing ex- 

 tends from March to October, and the 

 schooners make from two to four trips 

 during that period. The method of fish- 

 ing by "flying sets" — towing the dories 

 and dropping them over the Bank — is 

 carried on to some extent by salt fisher- 

 men, but these craft usually anchor on 

 the Bank, and the dories row away from 

 the vessel, take up their position, and set 

 the gear. 



If fishing is good, the lines are left in 

 the water and "under-run" 1 — i. e., the fish 

 are taken off and the hooks immediately 

 baited again without hauling the whole 

 line up and taking it aboard the schooner 

 to do so. When the fish begin to thin 

 out, the gear is taken up and the schooner 

 makes sail for another fishing ground. 



Halibut fishing is possibly the most ex- 

 citing' of all. Cod, haddock, and similar 

 species are quiet fish, with but little life 

 in them when hauled up from the bottom. 

 But the halibut is a fighter and has to be 

 clubbed by the dory-men before being 

 taken into the dory. 



In the summer months, when the fish 

 are inshore in shoal water, the halibut is a 

 troublesome fellow to land. I remember 

 while halibut fishing around Anticosti, in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the terrible 

 struggles we had with fighting halibut in 

 forty and fifty feet of water. The writh- 

 ing and squirming of a hundred-pounder 

 would give a fisherman all he could man- 

 age in getting him aboard the dory, and 

 very often he would have to cut the snood 



and let the fish go, lest by his struggling 

 he capsize the boat. 



Even when the fish has been clubbed 

 into quietness and hauled into the dor}, 

 lie will wake up and thrash the oars, 

 thwarts, and gear overboard by the 

 smacks of his tail. Old-time halibuter s 

 provide for this contingency by lashing 

 the halibut's tail to the rising-strips of 

 the boat. 



In deep water, say ioo fathoms, the 

 halibut are not so wild. The long pull 

 from the bottom to the surface has ex- 

 hausted the fish and they are more easily 

 handled. 



An instance of the daring of fishermen 

 was seen by the writer on a halibut trip 

 when, during a savage squall, a heavily 

 loaded dory was half swamped by a 

 comber. The two dory-mates tied lines 

 to some of the fish and hung them over- 

 board to lighten the boat, while one man 

 bailed and the other kept the dory bows- 

 on to the sea. Unable to row down to 

 the schooner with the fish overside, they 

 remained thus for two or three hours, 

 until the vessel worked to windward of 

 them and picked them up. 



HAND-CAUGHT FISH ARE SUPERIOR 



In addition to long-lining from dories, 

 a few vessels fish by means of hand-lines 

 from dories. Hand-line dories are a trifle 

 smaller than the others and one man usu- 

 ally fishes from them. 



The hand-line is equipped with two or 

 three hooks and a lead sinker, and the 

 fisherman will operate several lines at a 

 time. Cod and haddock caught by hand- 

 line are conceded to be superior to long- 

 line-caught fish, and this method is em- 

 ployed in both fresh and salt Bank fishing. 



The age of the clipper ship and the 

 seamen who sailed them is gone, but in 

 the American Banksmen we find the 

 smartest sailing craft and the smartest 

 sailormen afloat today. But the steam 

 and motor trawler is coming into the 

 American fisheries and many of the tall- 

 sparred schooners are having their sails 

 and masts cut down and internal-com- 

 bustion engines installed. 



In a few years from now the schooner 

 fleet will give way to power and the 

 sailor-fishermen who drove these smart 

 and able hookers over the seas will have 

 evolved into sea-mechanics. 



