Purse Seining in
1900
There
were two kinds of rowboats used in 1900 purse seine fishing. The bigger of
the two rowboats was called the “scow”. The scow was large, with a flat
bottom. In the middle of the scow, there was a pulley that lowered and lifted
the net. This pulley was called a winch. Coiled around the winch, there
was a giant net called a purse
seine. It was several hundred feet
long. The scow also contained a large
holding area for the fish, on its deck. Two
fishermen (the skipper and the scow man) were onboard the scow. The skipper and
the scow man had a long oar on each side of the scow. The oars were used mainly
for maneuvering the scow, once it got to the fishing grounds.
Usually, the scow was towed to the fishing grounds by a large
steam-powered boat owned by the cannery. This boat was called the cannery
tender.
The fishing grounds were often located at the mouth of
streams and rivers, where salmon were entering to spawn upstream. The fishermen
barricaded the streams and caught the schools of salmon that were trying to
enter the streams. The purse seine boats had no power, so the fishermen had to
wait for very calm water. They couldn’t
do anything in a strong tide.
The second boat used in purse seining was a smaller rowboat
called a “net boat”. The net boat had no power. Three men rowed on each side of the net
boat, with good size oars. Fishermen
usually rowed the net boat to the fishing grounds, but sometimes a
steam-powered cannery tender gave them a tow.
Once the net boat reached the fishing grounds, it met up with
the scow. The men in the net boat
fastened the free end of the purse seine net onto their small boat. Then they towed
the net around a school of fish, in a large “U” shape. The other end of the
net remained fastened to the scow’s winch.
The purse seine net
had three types of lines that ran along the length of the net. The top line
had floats along the top edge of the net, to keep the top
from sinking. The bottom edge of the net was called the lead line (pronounced
“led” line). The lead line had weights all along its edge
to keep the net upright in the water. The purse line was rigged so the
bottom of the net could be gathered up and pulled closed.
After the net had
surrounded a school of fish, the six fishermen in the small net boat climbed
aboard the large scow and joined the skipper and the scow man.
The
scow’s winch had
long handles (click your browser’s “Back” button to return to this page)
and two men on each side would turn the winch to pull the bottom purse line
closed. When the purse line closed, the net looked like an upside-down purse, with the bottom of
the net gathered together. The fish were trapped inside the “purse”
formed by the net. The purse seine net was able to catch many fish at a time.
The fishermen then hauled up the fish-filled net. If the net
was too heavy to lift, the fishermen used a brailer to scoop out some of
the fish at a time from the net. As the net came up, the men leaned over the
side, grabbed two of the net’s rings at a time, and pulled them up. They stood around the rail and caught the
rings, and as soon as they pulled them up they reached down and pulled up two
more. They flipped them over so as to
pile the net right back on the scow. After the net was hauled up, full of fish,
the fish were dumped into the holding area.
Image Credit: Microsoft
ClipArt Gallery.
Photos courtesy of Galen Biery Historic
Collection.