Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1908-11-04
THROUGH THE STRAIT
OF BELLE ISLE.
By JOHN K. COTTON.
$3.50 gzazz=zssss esss ss@3 sese Ea

Sree pHae CssazSSED 1855 SssRsF
eIeebergs, eh?" said Captain Sar-
gent Spinney, in: reply to a question
from knot OF school cadets huddled
round the stove in the Cape Ann Sea-
mans Bethel. "Oh, yes, good many,
all told. Mostly OFF in the distance,
though"
I. Seating himself astride chair, he
, stared reaectively through the bank
of crimson geranium blooms in the
windo. out. upon the shipping in the
harbor.
Although continued to hold up
before me volume of Geodetic Sur
yey Records, in which I had been
studying the singular changes in the
coast-line, ! lost all interest in its
contents, and found my eyes wander
ing expectantly to the rugged skip
per.
Cape Ann fishermen up in north
ern waters" said he, don't go in for
scenery much; it's mostly halibut.
Once in while duck or seal, and
sometimes a game and dicker with
the Eskimos-but it's mostly hall
but
But spring before last We ran the
Nancy Lee up to latitude fifty-five
degrees and fifty-six minutes. That's
about one hundred and sixty miles
east by north of Cape Harrigan, and
not far from the queer little settle
ments of the Moravians. Twas as
far up as we could get on account Of
drift ice.
The Nancy is only an eighty-ton-
ner, and though she is Essex-built.
and as clever and able for her tons
as any craft fishing out of this port,
she was never timbered to bunt arctic
ice in those fierce currents and windy
fogs- It's nearly always foggy up
there, and when it blows it blows.
1.-The sea was full Of field ice, a
good deal of it full-fedged bergs
higher than the burgse on our top
stick Set tcawls? guess not! We
didn't even t-y the bottom or send
down an anchor.
{ First blow kept us busy, then a
SHOW; wet, heavy snow, too, that
stacked up all over the deck and sail,
and weighted her down so that we
had to wear often and take it on the
.otaer: quarter to keep her trim. And
fog! twas foggy all the time.
So we headed her back south
again, and ran until we. found a hun
-dred and Fifty fathoms of water, about,
one hundred and tw enty miles east cf;
Belle Isle We had fshed along, here
many trips before, aud felt quite tidy
land homelike when We: hove over the
.stouaes and got the gear all out and
fishing.
THE sun came out and shone
bright in the blue, and for nearly
week we found good trawling. We
1sad two-thirds OF a trip in the hold,
when one morning up shot big Judic
Chisholm in the Therese Prindall, and
we hailed hin- Twas on that day,
Friday. that a lot Of poor judgment
tries to hide behind.
{ We've got only about ten LOU
sand Ash and thirty of aetchers in her
-now1' he sung out as he few by.
Going to try for a better berth south
IN hM.'
Z Better berth south, en- thought
I, as I watched them bear off to
sou'west, his dories all nested and
made fast, both anchors taken on
deck, and the craft setting SO deep
that II she had a fish in her she had a
good sixty thousand pounds.
Touches me Judic have likeE.s
catch in her already, cap'n,' blurted
Page Rowe. who sat beside me on the
house
Aye spoke he again. I say he's
ON the clean leap for home by the
outside course this very minute.
Takes a navigator to slip through the
straits
Me, too,' Joined in Buster Plum
mer. The Cape Ann Halibut Com
pany's wharf is like to be that berth
south bit he have in mind, fancy.
Judic's q crafty bundle. He be that.
While we sat there watching them
up staysail and up topsail running
of more to westward all the time, l
calculated in my mind the difference
Ia the price of the first spring trip
landed and the second, though twas
so0ly an hours difference in hailing
TIE market No fisherman likes to
he shown the way home to market.
I'VE baited up again that day, and
1he next morning the dories began
to come in with good fish from that
nights set. But before all hands got
aboard the glass began to falls and
dropped steadily until, through that
golden sunshine, all hands stared into
trouble OF one kind or another. So
before noon we were headed for home
by way OF Belle Isle Strait, with a
Gair trip. tucked away.
I'm glad for one,' said Toby
Snow. Toby's black man. Negroes
are scarcer than Irishmen aboard a
fisherman, but Toby's one. Good ne
gro, but poor fisherman.
.A1abama's de place. said he,
fo1 ~,