Chapter 4

LIFE IN THE FISHERY

Swamped To The Gunnels

By Ira Holley
Researcher: Christopher Poole

When I was younger, I used to be a share man with Paul Poole. Paul fished out of Murray's Harbour at the time. I remember one morning we got up really early, I would say five or six o'clock. There was a bit of fish on the go so we headed to our trap that was up in Salt Pond. We got on the trap and we saw a good sign of fish. We kept hauling up the trap until the fish were all dried up(10). We knew we had a lot of fish so we started dipping it in as fast as we could. Before long we had the 'midshiproom' full. We put some up in the cuddy and some in the back. The only place without any fish was the engine house. We had the boat completely full and there was still a nice bit of fish left in the trap. We could not carry anymore so we let the rest of the fish down.

Fishing Boat
Bringing in a load of fish was a common sight in Murray's Harbour years ago.

In the boat is Tom & Joyce Holley.

Photo courtesy of Joyce Holley.

We were ready to go home when we both realized that the boat was pretty low in the water. The water was almost up to the gunnels of the boat. We knew we could not go home like that because if a wave hit us or the wind picked up we would be swamped. One option was to throw some fish overboard to lighten the load. Neither of us liked that option because we had thrown enough fish away for one day. What we decided to do was bail the water out from the engine house. You see when you dip in fish you also dip in a lot of water. There was a lot of water in the boat and we figured if we bailed out some of it we would be able to make it home. That was a good idea, but where was the bail bucket? We could not find it! We were in such a hurry to dip in all the fish that we forgot about the bail bucket and covered it over with fish. So there it was, somewhere under all that fish!

It seemed we would have to throw away some fish after all. Then Paul did something I will never forget. Re took off his rubbers and started bailing out the boat. What a funny sight that was! It was a hard old bail bucket, but it did the trick. We managed to get most of the water out from the engine house. We let go of the trap and headed home. We made it home safe and sound without any problems. Yes, sir in those days you had to use whatever you got. We could not find the bail bucket so we had to use a rubber boot instead. It took a little longer to bail out the boat, but we managed to get home with our load of fish that day.


10 Dried up - to bring the fish in a cod trap to the surface by hauling it together in a bag at the back of the trap.


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