in being placed upon a sloping peninsula that is broached on every side by the waters of the Atlantic. Below the crown of the hill lies the schooner fleet in the main harbour. The bankers, all rigged alike and all painted black, direct their spoon bows in unison as they shift with the tide. The "back harbour" view embraces multitudes of islands afloat on the great Bay of Mahone.
The Lunenburg fleet comprises one hundred and nineteen schooners with a total tonnage of eleven thousand. A new vessel costs $7000 to $8000. Crews varying from seventeen to twenty-two men are carried aboard each boat at the spring and summer fishing.[1] Bait is secured off Newfoundland before going to the feeding-banks where the fish are caught by anchored trawls, each one over a mile in length, and baited by means of hooks which are set by men in dories. As the cod are brought in to the schooner, they are cleaned and thrown into salt. The total catch, from March to September, may approximate 140,000 quintals, a quintal equalling a hundred and twelve pounds. The 1914 fares were light because live caplin swarmed the Newfoundland Banks in such numbers that the cod refused the dead bait. The captains and crews work on "half lay," or on a percentage. People of the town own stock in the various vessels, whose shares are divided into sixteenths, or in some
- ↑ According to a report of the Marine and Fisheries Department, 26,500 persons are employed in the fishing industry of the Province.
