Cod fishing the Grand Banks / Schooners, Dories and such

[Eddiebou]

I watched "Captains Courageous" last night. Never seen it before, nor do I know anything about cod fishing, dories, fishing schooners, the grand banks, or the northern ports where this sort of thing took place.

I guess the film footage of the boats sailing and the fishermen working was somewhat accurate.

The first thing to come to my mind was how sleek and fast the boats were. They looked like racing yatchs. Were they schooners or ??? How many dories did they carry? How big were they?

[rbgarr]

Some info here, but there were many variations and developments over time in the way the schooners were designed, built and fished: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_%28schooner%29

[Gerarddm]

Their speed was entirely a result of market forces. If you got back to port before everybody else glutted the market, you made more money. So they got larger as decades rolled by because waterline length equals speed.

In his youth, actor Sterling Hayden was a participant in the great schooner races and vividly recalls those times in a passage in his autobiography Wanderer. Great stuff, he was a hell of a sailor.

[Jim Ledger]

This is a good book for an overview of the history of the industry..."Cod"...

http://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-.../dp/0140275010

[Eddiebou]

Sterling Hayden....

"I can no longer stand back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, and the international communist conspiracy to sap, and impurify... our precious bodily fluids."

He was shot in the throat in The Godfather.

I had heard he was a sailor.

[Autonomous]

Captains Courageous. I was glued to the screen and hardly dared to blink, didn't want to miss any of the boat scenes.

[Breakaway]

The book/movie is accurate, based on the historical stuff I have read. The schooners were big and fast and corporate-owned (mostly). The fishery led to the development of the banks dory as the first ( ??) production boat in the US. Dories were the most seaworthy boat that could serve their mission while using existing technology and materials and be built in high quantity for a low price. ( Geez... I think I just called the Banks Dory a Bayliner )



Kevin

[Gerarddm]

In The Perfect Storm there is a description of those early dory handliners - man, what a tough ugly way to make a living. Makes the guys on Deadliest Catch look... modern. Jeez.

[skuthorp]

From Gavin Atkins site http://intheboatshed.net/ a short film about the Portugese Grand Banks fishing schooners


http://intheboatshed.net/2010/01/19/...ast-campaigns/

[johnw]

From Gavin Atkins site http://intheboatshed.net/ a short film about the Portugese Grand Banks fishing schooners


http://intheboatshed.net/2010/01/19/...ast-campaigns/

Thanks for the link, that was great! Of course, those salt bankers stayed out longer and didn't have to be as fast. The Glouster fleet got faster when the railroads connected to Boston, because they could sell fresh fish to Boston.

[Tom Hunter]

The Eastern Seaboard of North America was fished by schooners both Canadian and US. The prevailing winds made schooners a very successful type for fishing in these waters.
The schooner in the film is the Henrietta, here is a pic of her from 1933 that the Boston Public Library put up on flickr.




Several of the original schooners still exist, the Adventure in Gloucester may be the largest on left, she is 130 tons, the Ernestina is older and is 98 tons, the reproduction Spirit of Massachusetts is 90 tons. I have forgotten the number of dories they usually sailed with, but I think it was 8 or more though one or two were spares.

Speed was money, so they were fast, I’ve gone 12 knots on Spirit of Mass, and I think you could get Adventure to 14 knts if you could drive her. Speed was money, fresh fish sells for more and being first back gets a premium price.


Sterling Hayden was not just crew on the schooners in the 30s, he was the main topmast man on the Gertrude L Thebaud for the international schooner races.

[dredbob]

If you haven't seen H I Chapelle's book _American Fishing Schooners_ you should check it out. Should be available through the library exchange system.

Bob

[rbgarr]

The fishery led to the development of the banks dory as the first ( ??) production boat in the US.

Could be. Lowell's Boat Shop was founded in 1793, but I don't know if they produced Banks dories in series from the get-go. Anyone?
Beetle developed their whaleboats to be more or less standardized production boats starting in the early 1800s.
Coincidentally Lowell's is building a Beetle whaleboat for the Morgan right now. http://www.lowellsboatshop.com/

[Nicholas Scheuer]

"Thr BLUENOSE was faster, but the ADVENTURE caught more fish". (From the book about the ADVENTURE I bought after breadfast aboard back twenty some years ago.

[the_gr8t_waldo]

gen. jack ripper was shot in the throat??!!!...does mrs ripper know this?

[rbgarr]

gen. jack ripper was shot in the throat??!!!...does mrs ripper know this?

Madeline Carroll, his first wife, might have cracked a smile about it.

[Chip-skiff]

One of my favorite maritime paintings, Fog Warning by Winslow Homer.



Looks as if our man might be in for a long night at the oars, or worse.

[blacksmith]

Eddiebou, the book "Adventure" by Joseph P. Garland covers all the aspects of a grand banks schnooer (in this case the knockabout Aventure out of Gloucester),dory fishing, racing,personalities, etc. The restoration of Adventure in Gloucester is close to completion.

[rbgarr]

Mmmm. Halibut.

[dan-marques]

You should check out "A Doryman's Day" http://www.tilburyhouse.com/ships-bo...rymans-day.htm

A great book about schooner & dory fishing.

[Ben Fuller]

Dory trawling as a technique introduced shortly before the Civil War, refined after it. The schooners had to grow to carry the dorys which needed more space than the handiners. Folks in the state of Maine were reluctant to adopt it because of the cost of the outfit when compared to a bunch of guys along the rail with handlines. It did get many more fish.

[J. Dillon]

A demonstration about dories:

JD

[Bill Perkins]

The footage of the schooner being sailed hard in the movie is of the L.A. Dunton , built in 1921 in Essex Massachusetts; absolutely for real and afloat at Mystic Seaport.

[chas]

"The footage of the schooner being sailed hard in the movie is of the L.A. Dunton , built in 1921 in Essex Massachusetts; absolutely for real and afloat at Mystic Seaport."

You have two schooners that sailed the Banks for cod. That's a wonderful thing to have that heritage around. I for one could go back in time on the deck of the Adventure in a 25 kt breeze. She's a beauty!

I've read somewhere recently that many of the Gloucester schooners were crewed by Newfs and Bluenosers. Any body know about that? It was very common for my family to migrate south for work at that time, so one could imagine it were true. / Jim

[jak3b]

"Ben Pine was born at Belloram, Newfoundland on September 10, 1883, the son of the late Owen and Sarah (Cluett) Pine. He came to Gloucester at the age of 10. For years, he went fishing out of Gloucester in the dory haddocking business, and took his chances in winter fishing on the banks of the North Atlantic in all-sailing schooners along with his dory-mates of Gloucester. Howard Blackburn was from Nova Scotia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Blackburn

The American Eagle is still around, check out: http://goodmorninggloucester.wordpre...last-schooner/
He also was the captain of the Gertrude L Thebaud http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbwm/29...n/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbwm/29...n/photostream/Also Captain Marty Welsh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Welch

[Simmons18]

Won't be long till Bluenose II is down the ways. Again!
http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/sou...uenose-ii.html

[Paul Pless]

This is an excerpt from a film documenting the last commercial cod fishing trip to the Grand Banks under sail. Its worthwhile watching the whole thing. Google 'Portuguese White Ships Cod'

[Bob Triggs]

There are some good videos on youtube. Searched with various terms.

[megdb]

Does anyone have information about the schooners that came over from the West of England to fish the Grand Banks in the 19th century. The English naive artist Alfred Wallis sailed as a cabin boy on the schooner Belle Aventure from Brixham in the 1860s and painted a number of pictures inspired by his voyages. I'd love to know exactly what life was like for him on the ship.
How many crew, the daily routine, how did they get the fish back to UK?

[Peerie Maa]

Does anyone have information about the schooners that came over from the West of England to fish the Grand Banks in the 19th century. The English naive artist Alfred Wallis sailed as a cabin boy on the schooner Belle Aventure from Brixham in the 1860s and painted a number of pictures inspired by his voyages. I'd love to know exactly what life was like for him on the ship.
How many crew, the daily routine, how did they get the fish back to UK?

The book England's Sea Fisheries, isbn 1 86716 124 4 has a chapter on the fishery. They were away for 6 months, based on settlements on the New England and Newfoundland shore where the cod was air dried for the Mediterranean market.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Englands-Sea...9133348&sr=1-1

[megdb]

Thank you so much. I'll search the book out.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

"They call her the Old Lady, the men who knew her best. The term is spoken with the same nuance of pride , affection, and respect with which Britishers discuss the Queen Mum." And this: "The Gertrude Theabaud and the Blunose were faster, but the Adsventure caught more fish". She did, in fact, bring home more fish than any other schooner on the Grand Banks. Quotes from ADVENTURE, Queen Of The Windjammers which I purchased aboard in Gloucester, along with breakfast one Sunday morning some years ago.

[gilberj]

You could be right about the Adventure. I understand the Bluenose landed the largest catch ever in Lunenburg.

[gilberj]

Bluenose II allegedly touched 20 knots once on a reach in a near gale.....