The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-29

most of the new vessels were built on
her lines.
The typical market fishing schooner
Is such a craft as the Rob Roy, with
10 feet length over all. So feet on the
water line, % feet beam, and masts
almost as long as those of the bigger
Grand Banks schooners, those of the
Rob Roy, for instance, being only 8
feet shorter than the masts of the big
Flaherty.
Different from both types in detail,
but similar to them in seaworthiness,
swiftness and beauty of outline, is the
mackerel seining schooner, which usual
ly is built to follow the business of
SEEMING mackeral in the summer and
the frozen herring trade in the winter
Her deck is so designed that, in ad-
dition to nestled dories. she can carry
a fortY-foot seine boat on deck and
stow the seine away there also.
The three methods of fishing among
the Gloucester men are with nets, with
travis and with hand lines.
Gill nets are set at the surface to
catch mackerel, herring, and other fish
that swim on the surface. The meshes
are just large enough to admit the
heads of the fish and as the Irvine is
very thin, they swim into them blindly
ana entangle their gills so that they
cannot escape.
The seine used mostly for catching
mackerel and herring, however, is the
purse seine, also used for taking men
haden. The purse seine is an immense
ana complicated net, running about l.
200 to 1,400 feet in length and with "a
depth of from 60 to $50 feet. The cost
OF such a net is from So to $1,000, and
1t is lowered around a school of fish by
tackles: After the prey has been sur
rounded. it is closed automatically at
the bottom, forming purse from
which the fish cannot possibly escape
except IN the occasional instances when
the catch is so huge that the net
breaks from the excessive weight
The gill net is used sometimes for
catching cod. In such cases it is
weighted down and set on the bottom.
Laying the TrnwI.
The trawl is a long line with hooks
set at intervals of few feet-three
feet for paddock and twelve to fifteen
feet for halibut. The trawl lines are
baited on board of the smack and then
coiled carefully into tubs so that they
will pay out without entangling.
When the dories go out, each takes
its quota of tubs of trawl lines and
sets them at various distances from
the smack. The traWl is sunk by be-
ing weighted at one end with an an
Choir, which has a long line with a
buoy attached to it so that, after the
line is on the bottom, the fishermen
can find it. After the anchor is down
one dory man rows slowly along
while the other pays out the trawl, and
when the end of the line is reached, it,
too, is fastened to a buoyed anchor and
dropped overheard.
Travis run from 5000 feet to IL, 900
feet in length and carry from 1900 to
1900 hooks.
A trawling vessel carries from three
TO nine dories, and two men go in each
dory In fair weather in hand-line
fishing, each dory often carries only
one man.
out with water and food every time
they are put over side, but the men
go Off without them far too often, and.
consequently. when they become lost
IN fog or are driven away from the
fleet In storm, their sufferings from
hunger and thirst are shocking.
Besides trawl lines and tubs. a we'll
found dory carries an extra anchor
ana anchor cable, a big tin horn 20
be used az fog signal. a gan hook
and maui OF club 20 Kill big fish.
Tlhe amount OF appliances carried by
a fishing vessel IL bewildering. For
every trip the smack IL fitted out with
enough tackle 81 all kinds 20 furnish
a tackle store for the vessels have
only themselves 90 depend on fOr from
-four weeks % TIRES months and must