Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/266

25(5 FISHERIES [ENGLISH COD FISHERY. a Mr Orlibar, a fishing smack owner at Harwich, made the first attempt to fish for cod with long lines on the Dogger Bank ; and although he was at first very unsuccessful, he persevered, and was so fortunate that in 1774 the number of smacks had increased to 62, of which 40 went regularly to the Dogger to fish with long lines. In 1788 there were 78 smacks, and in 1798 the number had increased to 90. About this time a few attempts were made at Gravesend, Greenwich, and Barking to construct smacks of a similar description, and the Harwich fishery gradually declined. Afterwards the three places on the Thames increased their connexion with this fishery, and Barking especially became an important station, not only for cod-boats, but also for trawlers. Many cod vessels were likewise owned at Gravesend and Greenwich, and these two towns for many years had stores of live cod in chests floating in the river. Great changes have, however, taken place in recent times; the Thames water became so impure that the cod could not be kept alive in it for many days, and ultimately the storing of the fish there was altogether given up. The Harwich river was still used for that purpose, and is so now, although there are but few cod-boats belonging to the place ; but the opening of the railways on the east coast gradually brought Grimsby into notice, and its position in relation to the fishing grounds was found so convenient that it gradu ally became, and there is every reason to believe it will re main, the headquarters of the North Sea cod fishery. The special feature in this fishery which distinguishes it from all other line fishing on the coast of the United King dom is the systematic use of welled vessels, in which the cod are kept alive until they are brought into port. These welled smacks are built for the purpose, the well not being a tank fitted into any suitable vessel, but a part of the original construction of the hull. Two strong water-tight bulkheads are built entirely across the vessel from keelson to deck, enclosing a large space just in the centre of the smack. This is the "well"; and a constant supply and circulation of tho water from the sea is kept up within it through large auger holes bored in the bottom of the vessel, in that part of it between the bulkheads. The vessel is in fact built in three compartments, and the water has access to the central one through the holes made at the bottom of it. The entrance to the well is on deck through a hatchway, the four sides of which are carried down for about three feet to what is called the well-deck, above the level of the water-line, extending all round the hatchway to the bulkheads and sides of the vessel. The object of this lower deck is to keep the level of the water within certain limits when the vessel is rolling about or pressed down under sail. The cost of these welled smacks is about 300 more than that of the ordinary " dry-bottomed " vessels of the same size. The working expenses of a cod smack are also much heavier than in a trawler. Each of these line boats carries from nine to eleven hands, of whom as many as six or seven are apprentices of various ages ; and the system of payment by shares, so general with the trawlers, is here only adopted in the case of the captain, who gets 9 per cent, of the proceeds of the voyage, the mate receiv ing 24s. per week, the men 2 2s., and the apprentices from 5 to .12 a year, according to their length of service. Provisions are found by the owner, entirely or nearly so. Both hand lines find long lines are used in this fishery, depending on season and locality. A complete set of long lines consists of about fifteen dozen, or 180 lines, 40 fathoms in length, each supporting 26 hooks on smaller short lines called " snoodti," which are fastened to the main line a fathom and a half apart. A ".string" of lines of this description is 7200 fathoms long, or nearly eight miles, and has 4680 hooks. Whelks or (i buckies " are always use I for bait where they can be procured in sufficient quantities, and in the regular long-line season each smack takes about 40 wash 1 of whelks with her for the voyage, and about half that quantity as the season draws to a clo,se in March. The whelks are preserved alive in net bags, and are kept in the vessel s well till wanted, when the shells are broken and the tough fleshy animals extracted. Baiting the large number of hooks used gives plenty of employment to the large crew of the smack. The lines are shot at sunrise or earlier if the weather is fine and there is light enough to see what is being done. The smack is put under easy sail, and kept as much as possible with the wind free, so long as a course can be sailed across the tide, which is im portant, as then, as the line is paid out, the snoods drift clear of it. The lines are neatly coiled, and with the baited hooks are laid in trays all ready for running, each tray containing from 12 to 16 pieces of line, and as the vessel sails slowly along, the whole length of line is gradually put overboard. A small anchor at every 40 fathoms keeps the line steady on the ground, and its posi tion at the two ends and at every intermediate mile is marked by a conical buoy or "dan," with a staff passed through it and carrying a small flag. When after a few hours the tide has nearly come to an end, the smack, which meanwhile has been hove to in the neighbourhood of the last buoy, gets tli3 end of the line on board and works in short tacks along its course, the line being hauled in, and the fish taken off the hooks as she proceeds. When the wind is very light a boat is used for hauling in the line, and the fish are kept alive in tho stern of the boat, which is partitioned off so as to form a watertight division. In any case the strong and lively fish are transferred as soon as possible to the ship s well, and dead fish, or those which do not appear likely to live in the well, are stowed away in ice. The season for long-lining is during winter, and the fishery is carried on both on the Dogger Bank and on well- known ground off the coast of Norfolk. In April this fishery comes to an end, and a few of the smacks go away hand-lining to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, salting the fish they catch there, and usually landing it at Shetland. In July hand-line fishing for cod begins in the home waters, and is continued till October, the commencement of the long-line fishery of which we have just spoken. The July fishery is at a distance of from 10 to 30 miles from the coast, as the approach of the herrings to the land at that time causes a great gathering of cod in their neighbourhood. The smack is hove to when hand-lining, and each man works with a single line furnished with from two to six hooks. On the return of the vessel to Grimsby after a few days, the fish are taken out of the well by means of long handled landing nets, and are put into wooden chests which are kept float ing in the fish-dock. These chests are 7 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, and are constructed so that there is a free circulation of the water through them. The water in the dock at Grimsby being quiet, the chests are made with the ends square ; but at Harwich, another storing place for live cod, the chests are moored in the tideway, and have the ends boat-shaped, so as to offer less resistance to the stream. There are about 400 of these chests in use at Grimsby during the height of the cod season, and as many as from 15,000 to 20,000 live cod in them at a time. There is a great advantage in thus storing these fish, as they can always be sent quite fresh to market, and only as many forwarded as there is a demand for. Killing the cod for market is a strange scene, and it goes on daily during the season. Each chest will hold from 40 to 100 cod according to their size, and when the fish are wanted, a chest is hauled alongside a hulk kept in the dock for the 1 A wash is a stamped measure capable of holding twenty-one quarts and a pint of water.