The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-07-09
NAKENAN'S WANDERINGS.
Around and About Penzance in
Cornwall.
Richer Fishing and Curing-Cornish
Suspicion and Generosity-st. Mich
ael's Bay and Mount.


Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1927
PENZANCE, Cornwall, July 2, 1892.
Before leaving the ancient Cornish sea-
port OF st. Ives my friendship with the
nsher folk Of the town led to the gaining
OF much interesting information regard
ing the famous pitcher fisher Of the bay.
Brief reference was made in my pre-
ceding article to the coming of the shoals,
the character of the fish, which is very
similar to the diminutive PASSPORT (Me.)
herr1ngs packed as sardines and given
french labels in that enterprising Yam
kee port, and the genuine sardine of Bis
cayan waters, while mention was made
OF the curious operation Of the ''huers,"
or watchers, and the universal excite
ment in st. Ives when a shoal is sighted.
Seines from ], 900 to 1000 feet long are
used for impounding the shoals. They
are carried in a large boat called the
selneboat, worked by from eight to ten
men with oars No sails are used. The
seineboat is attended by two smaller
boats called "toWboats," which carry
smaller nets called thwart or top nets,
another tender, rowed by strong lads,
and used for carrying men between the
larger boats, or TO and from the shore, as
circumstances may require.
w hen the watchers upon the nights
signal the order to shoot, both the seine
boat and the thwartboat start from the
same point. From the former the seine
Is cast around the fish on theoutSide form
ing sort of continuation of the circle, but
The follower remains at the point of de-
parture to prevents the fish from passing
through the opening between the ends of
the two nets.
AS soon as the seine is shot the work of
the blowers" begin. Twenty to forty
of these take the warp or line at its shore
end, attach it to a huge capstan and be-
gin drawing it inshore. At the same time
another line called the towrope is carried
from the opposite extremity, and with
this the men in the Seineboat warp the net
inward. The nets, with the fish inclosed
or penned in, are now brought near
enough to land to be out of tides way and
are safely moored.
Gathering in or taking up the fish is
called ''tucking." When the tide is low
the seineboat is utilized within the
moored seine, and has on board what is
called a ''tucknet." With this the fish
are scoeped from the wriggling shoal and
brought so near the surface that they
may be dipped out OF the sea in a basket.
BoatIoad alter boatload is thus taken,
until enough are secured to be handled in
the curing process between one low tide
and another, and when the shoals are
large a week Of night and day work is
often required.
Trucking" at night is always an inter
esting and often brilliant scene in st.
Ives Bay; the boats fastening to and fro,
the oars sparkling with phosphorescence
at every sturdy stroke; the subdued. vet
EAGER activity nf tho fiSaArY1aap, &c
plunge their baskets into the water to
raise at each dip "A stream of quiVering sill
Yer; the hustle and excitement along the
pier and the busy streets where the labor
never ceases so long as the shoal holds
out; and then old st. Ives hanging like
ragged mIstletoe from the nights above,
with the terrace lights like a flashing
tiara, are all worth storing away among
the pleasant pictures Of the memory.
From the boats the pilchards are taken
to the cellars and storehouse in ''gurries.''
These are square vessels like open boxes,
with handles at each end. The fish are
sailed IN bulk, that is, they are built into
huge piles in alternate layers of fish and
salt. All this work is done by women
and girls who are quite as powerful in all
necessary handling and carrying as the
men, and far more dexterous.
The fish are allowed to remain in bulk
for thirty or forty days. During this time
away, finding its way into receptacles
from which the oil is skinned. Then
the fish are washed perfectly clean in huge
troughs, when they are put with great
nicely and in regular layers into casks,
locally called 'hogsheads," Of fifty-two
gallons each. They are then subjected to
strong pressure for week, causing an
other large flow of oil, after which they
are headed up and are ready for eXporta-
ton to Mediterranean ports.
These st. Ives curers are the wives,
daughters and sweethearts of the st. Ives
fishermen, brawny Of arm, stout of frame,
among the cleanest of women at home,
not given to the unrepeatable billings
gate of the ThameS-side fishwives, and
they get more pleasure out of their neigh
borly ''teas'' and their Wesleyan PRAYER
meetings than is secured out of any man
ner of diversion by any other lowly
women l know. But despite the PRAYER
meetings they enjoy their rough larks
and play, which are usually the source
of discontinue to SOME man of their
own kind who has been caught at some
unforgivable pecadillo, or some coop
start stranger whom they dearly love to
hustle" for awhile and then treat to a
bath in the harbor or within some conve-
nient vat of pickle and OIL Indeed,
throughout all Cornwall all women who
work at mans labor in gangs together
like these st. Ives fisherWiVeS and the
''bal girls" or mining pit brow lasses,
seem to have a penchant for treating any
man who has secured their dislike in so
rough a way that it often merges upon
brutality.
Among their immemorial customs none
is more rigidly adhered to or more likely
to make trouble to a supercilious stranger
than the one among the St. Ives fish
wives of "wiping the shoe" If you, by
chance, step into one of these huge fish
curing cellars, where from 80 to 100 st.
Ives 1ishwomen are at work, their shrill
clacE and cIatter of voices are instantly
hushed. Some substantially built, mid
dle-aged woman advances to you, and.
without word, gives the toe of one of
your shoes a quick wipe with bit of old
rag filled with oil. That is all there is to
"wiping the SHOE" If you Immediately
respond with a half crown, or even a
shilling. This is counted as paying
your reckoning for satisfying your Gu
riosity, and the proceeds go into COM
mon fund. II you fail TO ut once furnish
the gratuity you are surrounded and
roughly ''hustled," in the meantime
coming in contact with rough knuokles
and hard elbows, which these fishwives
know how TO savagely handle, and you
are certain to at least land in the bay, or
the more disagreeable ''pickle" and oil
vat.
1t is not more than eight miles across
from st. Ives Bay on the north TO Mounts
Bay on the south OF the Cornish PENN
sula. On the latter stands Penzance, and