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| This method of fishing began about
1850. It was very dangerous but profitable. The men would lay
and haul trawls from dories. Schooners would carry 6-12 dories on deck.
These little boats were painted bright yellow-orange for visibility in fog,
dusk or snow. The equipment on a dory was: a jug of water, food, four
oars, a mast and sail, two 17 lb anchors, 2 or 3 buoys and markers, 2-4
trawl tubs, thwarts, pen boards, bailers, kerosene flare, gaff, club, bait
tub, gurdy and compass. All of this gear was marked with the number
of the dory. One of these dories could hold about 1,700lbs of fish.
The trawl itself was a tarred, thick cotton ground line about a mile or so long. Every three feet a " snood " or " gangen "-2 or 3 feet of lighter line- was attached to the ground line. At the end of the gangen the loop of a bowline was pushed through the eye of the fish hook, looped and pulled tight. Nine dories could lay out 24,000 baited hooks on the bottom of the sea. Laying the traw: Two dorymen would row out from the schooner into position as directed by the captain. There a marker buoy would be dropped, the end of the ground line was bent to the anchor and the anchor was dropped. They would then put out the trawl with baited hooks by using a "heaving stick. " They would then row oout a bit further(halfway along the trawl another marker buoy may be placed). At the end of the trawl another anchor was let go with another buoy. Then the men waited for the fish to come. Under-running the trawl: The trawl was hauled up from
one end, the ground line up one side of the dory and down the other.
One man pulled off the fish using a gaff and another man rebaited the
hooks as they went along the groundline. When their boat was full
of fish they returned to the schooner. Then using two-tined pitchforks
they tossed the fish aboard. They under-ran the trawl three or four
times a day. Having a fish every 15 hooks was considered pretty
good. The trawls were left in place as long as they were still catching
fish. |
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