Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-28
Hardy Fishermen Who Pro-
vide Us With Lenten Food.
GLOUCESTER SMACKS
FLEET OF STANCH AND SWIFT
SAILING BOATS.
Various Methods Of Taking the Fish
The Race for the
Market

Written for The Evening Star.
When the fleets of old Gloucester went
| out to prepare for this years Lenten food
supply the smacks scudded through snow
squalls and sleet storms to reach the fish
Ing grounds of the Georges and the Grand
Banks. Except for the fishery of midwin-
ter, the early spring fishery is the stornliest
OF the year, and every spring the watchers
at the Heads see smacks return with colors
at half-mast. Easter is sure to be a time
of mourning instead Of rejoicing for at
least few of Gloucester's families.
The hazard deters none. Every season the
vessels race to the far-off shore grounds as
II they were yachts racing in summer
| breezes for cup Life is full of keen de-
light for the men. They go out to their
weeks and months of fishing as merrily as
II they We're boys going to play.
Fine racers are these sloops and schoon-
ers, with their quick motions, built to turn
as suddenly on their heels as ever a dancer
| tw1rled. Clap on! Clap onr' is the motto,
coming and going. When men in cities are
hoidlng on to their hats and women are
struggling with their skirts in March
blasts. the fishermen heading toward the
great waters are holding on, too-holding
on to all the sail they can carry and s.let-
tlng her drive" through the green of it.
Great Is the laughter of other crews at
that one whose skipper takes in more
canvas than they consider necessary;
mighty is the pride of the crew whose YES
sci passes the rest and manages to be at
anchor over the grounds by the time the
beaten ones fly in.
Ocean Villages.
When landsman goes cut in a smack
10 the off-shore grounds, he experiences a
curious change of~feeling before he has
peen out long. He expects at first to adjust
MS mind to the conditions of life on a lone
ly sea. He discovers, instead, that the
bank fishermen have all the neighborly in
terest and the gossip of village-a queer
VlHage whose streets are rolling ocean
water thirty fathoms deep, whose houses
are tossing craft, now dancing merrily on
the black ridges of a biHow, now spinning
down into black-green hollow of swirling
water. But between those pitching houses
over those graves of streets, passes the
scandal and the jest of a neighborhood.
The Sarah Jane must 'a-been afraid Of
gettfn her feet wet cries a wag in a dory
we see her feelin' around under double
reefs tryln to pick out the smooth spots"
The village likes the suggestion and by
night the Sarah Jane and her crew have
been labeled with joke that will stick to
them until another victim arrives
A green hand on his first trip will be
hailed by somebody every time he sticks
his head above decks, with "Say Bill,
watch out and tell US when the bakers wa
gon comes along" or bill, would you mind
runndn' down to the corner and gittin' us
paper of fine cut?" until Bill becomes ac-
clmated.
The set of the sails of a smack, new addi-
tons to her crew, new paint on her sides
all are talked over from vessel to vess ell in
the same matter-of-fact way in which men
discuss one anOthers houses on land
INSTRUMENTATION at Sea.
Though they are anchored far apar. for
safety's sake, and though the grounds are
SO great that the vessels anchored at the
opposite outer limits of the fleet cannot
see one another, communication between
the crews Is wonderfully quick and COM
plete The men have become accustomed
to understand shouts that are not even au-
dible to a landsman. The motion Of a hand
on a craft mile away is not only seen at
once, but Interpreted unerringly. Simple
gestures, such as holding up both hands
or erecting an oar, all convey a direct mes
sage that is never misunderstood or over
looked.
So the men on a smack at one end Of the
big fishing line seem ito know always how