Now occurred the most amusing part of this bold experiment. The swift current quickly bore the other two vessels away from the anchored craft, but those on board the latter imagined that they were moving and leaving their friends behind. They began to heave desperately on their cable, got their anchor up, and started back in pursuit of their companions. When they were once more united, all hands were fully satisfied with their exploit; and though they had taken but a few quintals[[B]] of fish they sailed back to Gloucester filled with pride because one of their number had dared drop an anchor on George’s.
In those days, and until 1846, fishing vessels did not carry ice in which to pack their catch and bring it fresh into market. In place of this, many of them were made into what are known as “smacks” by having tight compartments built in their hold amidships, and filled with sea-water from auger-holes bored through the vessel’s bottom.
The greatest depth of water on George’s is 212 fathoms,[[C]] or 1272 feet, nearly a quarter of a mile. The average depth for fishing is sixty fathoms, though halibut are often taken in water two hundred fathoms deep. It is, of course, tiresome work to drag these great fish to the surface from such great depths, and they are never sought for there if they can be found in shoaler water.
It is no rare thing to find a hundred fishing vessels at anchor at one time on George’s during any month of the year, and it was to join this fleet that the Albatross was now making her way swiftly around the point of Cape Cod. She was fitted out as a hand-liner--that is, her crew would fish with hand-lines over her sides--and she had a quantity of frozen herring stowed with the ice in her hold to be used as bait.
They reached the bank and caught sight of the anchored fleet early the following morning after leaving Boston. As they slipped along past one after another of the vessels already at work, they could see their crews hauling in their lines and tossing fish over the rail as fast as their arms could move. It seemed curious to Breeze that this busy work should always stop as soon as the Albatross drifted near any of the others. He asked why it was, and was told that they were afraid the new-comers would notice their good luck and anchor near them, which they did not wish to have them do.
As the Albatross moved slowly across the bank, soundings were taken, and the skipper kept a baited hook down. At last, in fifty fathoms of water he got a strong bite, and at once ordered the anchor to be dropped, Then the sails were snugly furled and the riding-sail set. This is a small triangular bit of canvas bent to the main-mast, and is used to hold the vessel’s head to the wind.
Now baskets of bait were got up, lines were overhauled, and soon every man on board had one or two over the side. They were allowed to run out until their leaden sinkers touched, when they were drawn up so that the hooks, that hung a fathom below them, were raised a few feet above the bottom.
There was an intense eagerness to bring up the first fish, and each man kept an eye on his neighbor’s line as well as on his own, to see if he were to be the lucky man. At last a shout announced a bite, and all turned to see Breeze McCloud tug away at something so tremendously heavy that it seemed to him he must be lifting a large piece of the bottom of the ocean.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GALE ON GEORGE’S.
“Look out, Breeze! Let him run a bit!” shouted the skipper. “Don’t try to snub him yet, or he’ll snap your line like a thread.”