Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-20
SCOTCH FISHER-F0LK.
A Quaint Old City on the Firth of
Forth Whose Inhabitants
FOLLOW THE SEA FOR A LIVING.
The Methods and the Profits Of Catching
Cod and Haddock.
AN ISOLATED But HAPPY PEOPLE
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE prsPArcB.l


We usually associate them in our fancy
with seawalls of sublimity or shore reaches
OF barrenness and desolation. Seagulls hov-
ering near; skeleton craft bleaching in wind
and weather; tide-swept coves, wind
whipped and grewsome, vary the picture.
But the harvesters of the deep ever recall
pictures Of sea rage, wrath and wreck.
The most noted fsher-folk in the world,
these of Newhaven, are differently en-
vironed. Their sea haunts, upon and at
the ocean mouth of the transcendently beau
tiful Firth of Forth, are of surprising love-
illness. Their home haunts are not in a
dreary coast hamlet pounded and howled at
increasingly by the sea, but in their own
quaint, quiet city of 5000 souls. They are
not periodically subjects of starvation and
charity; but live in ample comfort both in
their sturdy fishing crafts and their clean,
picturesque habitations. They are neither
sodden nor ignorant, but are bright, earn
est and healthy minded.
Because they have ever been represented
in the magazines and reviews as an odd,
rough and uncanny lot. and I have found
them upright, sturdy and fine, it is delight
10 let the world know something about them
and their environment as they really are.
Newhaven as a fishing village is very an
cient indeed. In the early part of the fif-
teenth century it was designated 'Our
Lady's Port of Grace" from a mite of
chanel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and st.
James; and a bit of the ruin of this edifce is
still to be seen in the old deserted burial
ground in the center of the place. But it
owes its later Importance to a speculative
whim on the part of James ~. who, in
1906 erected here a rope-walk, docks and q
ship-building yard. In the latter was then
constructed that then most marvellous levi
athau of the sea, James war ship, Great
Michael, the largest ship the world had then
known, whose sides amidShips "were padded
with solid oak ten feet thick"
AN OCEAN MONSTER.
The Great Michael was 24O feet long and
J6 feet wide; was. .armed with manv heavy
guns. and three great bassils, with no less
than SEQ moyennes, falcons, Cuarter-faleons,
slings, pestilent serpentines, and double
days, with hacbuts, culverines. cross-bows
and hand-bows: was manned with 800 mari
ners, 120 cannonlers and 1000 soldiers; and
was in other respects so wonderful that to
this dav the monster is recalled whenever a
new fishing craft enters the harbor; for such
)
syne Michael's time" The only
other noted incident ever occur
ing at Newhaven was when, in
September 1850, 60 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 Edin-
burgh, whose great port was, and is, the city
O. Leith, fearing the growing prestige of
the new haven" purchased the entire
place from James ", in 1910, at a good
round sum, and for the last $50 years, while |
the little port has remained simply an ex-
tension of old Edinburgh and Leith, up the
south side of the Forth, NewhaEen has had
but a slumberous growth. To-day it COM
prises 5000 souls. Over 4, 500 of these are
fishermen. fish-wives and fishers children.
1t is little world by itself.
But no one who knows the Newhaven |
fsher-folk at all will set them down as lack |
ing in unusual Intelligence. 1t would be |
difficult to ind anywhere in our own coun-
try an isolated town OF 5000 people possess
ing so many self-Sustaining, alert, CHEEKY,
active-minded souls. There are not simply |
few predominating intellects bending |
all other wills and wishes to their own. |
Man, woman or child, one and all, suddenly |
whisked to anywhere else. would thrive. |
Their activity is remarkable; their percep-
tion, quick and true; their amiability win |
some; their physical power and industry are
amazing; and their tranquility and content
are something good to see and know. They
are the only characteristic community COM
prising a distinct class, all OF whom toll
bravely in the same manner of drudgery, 1
ever came upon in all my wanderings who
were willing that the better favored should |
enjoy their good fortune, and were them |
selves cheerily glad to remain as, and what,
they are.
THE FISHING OUTFIT.
A good deal of this was made clear in the |
few trips took with the Newhaven fisher |
men to sea. The total feet comprises five |
3O-ton boats, costing $3.50 each; q cotton |
boats, costing 9250 each, and 120 fve-ton |
boats, costing 3S5 each, giving total capt. |
tai of nearly S100, 600 invested in boats |
alone. The entire 'gear" involves an |
original and repair outlay of nearly an |
equal sum, so that the Newhaven folk |
alone who comprise but a small proportion |
OF the whole fishermen along the shores of |
the Firth of Forth and the near fishing |
ports, have no mean investment out of |
wi ich, with the addition of their lahors, to |
deserve an excellent livelihood Cod, had |
dock and herring are chiefly sought The |
fishing grounds for the cod are in the middle |
Of the North Sea, about 100 miles east OF |
the Isle of May, which stands at the mouth |
of the Firth of Forth. The feet are usually |
away from port from Monday to Saturday |
during few weeks Of early spring. There |
are no "hand-liuers" as with our Gloucester |
fishermen, who frequently go out from their |
schooners anchored on the Banks, in yawls |
and dories to take cod with single lines.
The Newhaven men, on arriving at the |
grounds, float and anchor;' that is, they /
sail laZily at the rate OF about four or five /
miles an hour, reefug their "lug" sails
according to the wind, away from the
anchored" end of cod-line, which is
always from five to seven miles in length
The hooks are q feet apart; and three buoys
only, one at each end, with a center flag,
are used for the entire line-length. The
work is usually begun after midnight at
such a time as will enable the crew to "get
her all In the water" before sunrise Jock"
lights, hamboyants and ordinary fash
lights are used; and the effect with large
feet, on moonless night, is as though in
Vulnerable sea volcanoes were sending
forth, in regular pulsation, tiny flashes OF
fame. -Four men are required to shoot"
the line. Three bait the hooks with herring,
and one "pays out" the line. In chad
dockin'" seven men comprise boats crew,
and each man owns q line to which is
attached "a score of hooks, AZ inches apart,
8 $50 feet long. The Joined seven lines con-
stitute fleet" of lines, the total length of
which is more than seven and one-half
miles.
THE HADDocK BOATS
make three trips a week to sea, and haddock
hooks are baited with mussels, which are
along The shores of the Firth |