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Led by the admiral, the Windhover with the rest of the fleet lowered her trawl, and went dipping slowly and quietly over the hills, towing her sunken net. The admiral of a fishing-fleet is a great man. All is in his hands. He chooses the grounds. Our admiral, it was whispered to me, was the wizard of the north. The abundant fish-pastures were revealed to him in his dreams.
The jerking of the tackle, which had continued all the time they were hauling in, appeared to increase as the trawl was raised to the surface, the net now that it was within view swaying from side to side; and, when Captain Dresser and the barrister leant over the gunwale to lift in the beam with its pocket attached, there was a hoarse barking sound heard proceeding from the folds of the net, like that of a dog in the distance.
This ridge bears SE. by S. from Bakers Island, the center distant 12 miles. This ground is nearly circular in form, about 4 miles in diameter, and has depths running from 18 to 60 fathoms. The bottom is of rocks, gravel, and mud; the shoaler portions are sharp and rocky. Vessels from Maine ports use this ground, fishing by hand line and trawl.
Near the mouth, they are four inches square, and in the cod, an inch and a quarter. The trawl is hauled along by a bridle, that is to say, by two ropes of about fifteen fathoms each, which are fastened to the ends of the trawl heads, and unite at a warp, one hundred and fifty fathoms long, which serves to haul the net along.
"How's that for an overcoat! They always throw it off when they get hung up on a trawl." Flinging the stuff away with a grimace, he rinsed his hand and cut off the ganging with his knife. "No use trying to unhook that fellow!" Fathom after fathom of trawl came in over the roller. The flapping, dying heap in the center of the dory enlarged steadily.
The body shot down with a plop, and Dan cautiously rose to his knees, whiter than the fog. "He come for it. He come for it. I've seen a stale one hauled up on a trawl and I didn't much care, but he come to us special." "I wish I wish I hadn't taken the knife. Then he'd have come on your line." "Dunno as thet would ha' made any differ. We're both scared out o' ten years' growth.
"Little things, sir crushed fingers, sprained foot, bruises when you tumbles, say runnin' round with the trawl warp. But we doan't a-seem to care for them so much. We're bred to patience, you see; and you're bound to act up to your breedin'. That is it, sir; bred to patience." "And has no doctor been out here yet?" "What could he du? He can't fare to feel like us.
The light sent a silver lane through the night, and men broke through the black walls of that brilliant separation of the darkness, and vanished on the other side. Leaning overside, I could see the pocket of our trawl drawing near, still some fathoms deep, a phosphorescent and flashing cloud.
The boats used in the fisheries are virtually of the same model, whatever the fish they may seek except in the case of the menhaden fishery, which more and more is being prosecuted in slow-going steamers, with machines for hauling seines, and trawl nets.
Gill-netters operate from Kettle Island to Halfway Rock and Italian boats trawl at all seasons off The Graves. Western Point Ridge. This bears S. by E. ½ E. from Eastern Point Light, distant 9 1/4 miles. Its length NE. and SW. is 1½ miles and its width is ¾ mile. The depths average 29 fathoms over a broken and rocky bottom. Small vessels and boats fish here for cod and haddock in the summer.
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