in which I had the pleasure later of exploring with him and roughly
charting three hitherto unrecorded bays.
One unusual feature of our magisterial work in 1912 was the settlement
of a fisherman's strike "down North." It would at first seem difficult
to understand how fishermen could engineer a strike, they are so
good-natured and so long-suffering. But this time it was over the
price of fish, naturally a matter of immense importance to the
catcher. The planters, or men who give advances to come and fish
around the mouth of Hamilton Inlet, were to ship their fish on a
steamer coming direct from England and returning direct--thus saving
delay and very great expense. But the price did not please the men,
and they knew if they once put the fish on board at $3.50 per quintal,
the amount offered, they would never recover the $5, which was the
price for which fish was selling in St. John's that year. The more
masterful men decided that not only would they not put the fish on
board till they had cash orders or Revillon agreements for their
price, but they would not allow any of the weaker brethren to do so
either. There were but few hard words and no violent deeds, but when
one blackleg was seen to go alongside the waiting steamer, which was
costing a hundred dollars a day to the fish-carrying merchant, a crowd
of boats dashed out from creeks and corners and pounced like a vulture
on the big boat, fat with a fine load of fish, and not only towed her
away and tied her up, but hauled her out of the water with the cargo
and all in her, and dragged her so far up the side of a steep hill
that the owner was utterly unable without assistance to get her down
again.
Each day we had a conference with one side or the other, the
Government having asked us to remain and see things settled. While
each side was fencing for an advantage, a good-sized schooner sailed
into the harbour, brought up alongside the steamer, and was seen to
begin unloading dry fish. A dash was made for her by the boats as
before; only this time it was the attack of Lilliputians on Gulliver.
We on the shore could not help laughing heartily when shortly we saw a
string of over a dozen fishing boats harnessed tandem in one long line
towing the interloper--as they had the blackleg--away up the inlet
where they moored and guarded her. It appeared that the buyer had sent
her to a far-off anchorage, and unknown to the strikers had had fish
put into her there. The steamer might have followed and got away with
the ruse. But the skipper underestimated the enemy, always a fatal
mistake, and lost out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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