Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-09-20


of chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary
and st. James; and q bit of the ruin of
this edifice is still to be seen in the old de-
serted burial ground in the center of the
place. But it owes its later importance to
a speculative whim on the part of James
w., who, in 1906, erected here a rope
walk, docks and q ship-building yard. In
the latter was constructed that then most
marvellous leviathan of the sea, James
wer-ship, Great Michael. the largest ship
the world had then known, whose sides,
amidships "were padded with solid oak
ten feet thick" The Great Michael was
two hundred and forty feet long and fifty
six feet wide; was armed with many heavy
guns and three great bassils, with no less
than three hundred moyennes, falcons,
quarter-falcons, slings, pestilent serpen-
tines and double days, with hacbuts, cul-
verines, cross-bows and hand-bows; was
manned with three hundred mariners, one
hundred and twenty cannoniers and one
thousand soldiers; and was IN other re-
spects SO wonderful that to this day the
monster is recalled whenever a new fish
ing-cIaft enters the harbor; for such is al
ways "the bonniest Newhayen boat syne
Michaers time" The only other noted in
cident ever occurring at Newhaven was
when, in September, 1850, sixty stately
galleys and other ships anchored here, and
the queen mother, with the most brilliant
company ever assembled in Scotland,
sailed out of the Forth on her way to visit
her daughter Mary in France. But the
city of Edinburgh, whose great port was,
and is, the city of Leith, fearing the grow
ing prestige of the new haven" pur-
chased the entire place from James w., in
1910, at good round sum; and for the
last three hundred and eighty years, while
the little port has remained simply an ex-
tension of old Edinburgh and Leith, up
the south side of the Forth, Newhaven
has had but a slumberous growth. To-day
it comprises five thousand souls. Over
fortyfive hundred of these are fishermen
fish wives and fishers children. 1t is a
little world by itself Its population are a
people by themselves. In spite of the
tram-cars that come as far as they dare
from the great city and halt by the village
side; in spite of the railway that brings
| and takes vast crowds of curious visitors:
in spite of the tremendous steamship and
vessel life and its splendid panorama be-
fore their very eyes; in spite of the
churches, missions and national schools
wedged between their curious habitations
| and in spite of the unceasing friction o,
their daily contact with the fine activities
of splendid city, housing the brightest
and most cultivated people in Great Brit
ain; they suffer no diminution, no i'm
| pingement, no change. AS to dress, Gus
toms, dialect, mannerisms, mode of life
modern progress stops aghast at the out
| skirts of Newhayen, walks around il, anC
passes on, as if with sigh of relief a
having escaped bootless struggle.
But no one who knows the Newhayel
| fisher-folk at all will set them down a
lacking in unusual intelligence. II woul'
be difficult to find anywhere in our owl
country an isolated town of FIVE THOUSAND
people possessing so many self-sustaining
alert, CHEEKY, active-minded souls. Their
are not simply few predominating intel
lects bending all other wills and wishes {,
their own. Man, woman or child. on
and all, suddenly whisked to anywher
else, would thrive. Their activity is ne
markable; their perception quick an,
true; their amiability winsome; thei
physical power and industry are amazing
and their tranquility and content ar
something good to see and know. The
are the only characteristic communit
comprising distinct class. all of whoI
toll bravely in the same manner of druid
gerry, / ever came upon in all my wander
! ings who were willing that the better fa
vored should enjoy their good fortune
and were themselves cheerily glad to N
main as, and what. they are.
| A good deal of this was made clear j
the few trips took with the Newhaye
fishermen to see. The total feet compri
: es five thirty-ton boats costing three hun
dred and fifty pounds each; twenty-seve
twenty-ton boats costing two hundred an
3 fifty pounds each; and one hundred an
{ twenty five-ton boats costing eighty-fi'
. pounds each: giving a total capital {
nearly one hundred Thousand dollars il
vested in boats alone. The entire gear,
J consisting of perhaps one hundred mile
of nets, tons of lines and hooks for lon.
line fishing, with creels, Grams, cressei
and various unnamable paraphernalia, il
wolves an original and repair outlay {
nearly an equal sum; so that the Newhi
ven folk alone, who comprise but a sIna
proportion of the whole fishermen alon
the shares of the Firth of Forth and Il
near fishing ports, have a no mean inyes
ment out of which, with the addition
e their labors, to deserve an excellent hvel
hood. Cod, haddock and herring M
chiefly sought. The fishing grounds fl
the cod are in the middle of the Nor,
sea, about one hundred miles east of Il
e Isle OF May, which stands at the mouth
{ the Firth of Forth. The fleet are usual
away from port from Monday until Satu
day, during few weeks of the ear
- SDTlUH.
e with our Gloucester fishermen, who fr
quently go out from their schooners, n
chored on the Banks, in yawls and dori
u to take cod with single lines. The Ne,
7 haven men, on arriving at the ground
d ''fioat and anchor that is, they sail lazi
/ at the rate of about four five miles
hour, reefng their lug sails accordil
to the wind, away from the 'anchore
end of a cod-line, which is always frC
J. five to seven miles in length. The hoo
n are twenty-one feet apart; and thu
a buoys only one at each end, with a cent
A buoy, each surmounted by u red or bla
!, flag, are used for the entire line-leng,
- The work is usually begun after midnig
i. at such a time as will enable the crew
:, s.get her all in the water" before sunri
!. s'Jock" lights, famboyants and ordina
flashlights are used; and the effect will
large fleet, on a moonless night, is
though innumerable sea volcanoes We
sending forth, in regular pulsation, ii
r flashes of flame. Four men are requir
n to ''shoot" the line. Three bait the no
a. with herring and one ''pays out" the lii
In ''haddockin'" seven men eompris
H. boats crew, and each man owns a line
ft which is attached eighty-four score
e. hooks, forty-two inches apart, five tho
81. sand eight hundred and eighty. feet lOl
1
oi of lines, the total length of which is m
e, than seven and one-half miles, As
haddock boats make three trips a weel;
a sea, and haddock-hooks are baited W
- mussels, which are gathered along
IL shores of the Firth, ''mussel-gatherin
he done by the women aud children, c
IL ''haddock- batting" add largely to
-, earnings of the fishermen's wives. By
W Interchangeable law the wives and daught
IN of each s'haddockin' crew" bait that ere
ed lines. receiving three shillings, sixpe
Vn per line. of twenty-four shillings
!. pence, per ''fieet;" and if the crew hav
10 in unmarried men, these cannot fa
ar- their sweet-hearts with the labor,
M must give it to the women folk of Il
nd married companions. The hadd
stfieet'' of lines is 'shotn Just as the da
i'. breaking. AS they snap and fly like WI
ut cords into the sea many a hook is emil
ID ded in a fisherman's hand. But this 4
,e- not put them sair about" as they che
ly answer you, while drawing the say
an barbs from their flesh with their te
fiji The haddock lines are not permitted tC
ic- main under water but half an hour,
Ill are scarcely ever ''drawn" without an
-. cellent yield of fish.
All the herring taken by Newhayen
ies ermen are sold for fresh consumption
my Edinburgh and its suburbs, the gre
are norton hawked as s'Caller tfresh)
e rinp,- by the Newhaven fish-wives tn
selves. Quest for these delicious fist
ltn made in ever-varying proportions OF
ne, Forth from opposite Newhayen ltsel
ga- the open sea beyond the famous !
. Rock, the s'season" continuing from !
ap 18th to the 9TH of September.