Lifelines: Canada's East Coast Fisheries

The Search for Cod, a Delicacy for Meatless Days
A Fishing Expedition on the Saint-André (1754)
The Search for Cod, a Delicacy for Meatless Days: 
A Fishing Expedition on the Saint-André (1754)

By Jean-Pierre Chrestien to TABLE OF CONTENTS


Fishing on the Grand Bank

The Preparation of Green Cod
 

Depending on their nationality, the fishermen prepared the cod in different ways. English fishermen split it open and removed the backbone to produce what was called flat cod. The French prepared it round, splitting it so that it remained round by the tail. 87


Round Cod and Flat Cod - 
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Figure 11: Round cod (E, F), the way the French prepared the fish, and flat cod (G, H), the way the English prepared it
H.-L. Duhamel du Monceau, Traité général des pesches, 1772, vol. 2, section 1, part 2, plate X, fig. 2, Canadian Museum of Civilization.


Two mates performed the roles of header and splitter. They prepared the cod on the deck, standing at a splitting table behind the fishermen. A boy worked between them, extracting the sounds. 88 Once the tongue was removed, the cod was passed to the header (Figure 10, d), who cut off the head. Standing in a barrel similar to those of the fishermen, the header wore leather sleeve protectors and a large comfortable apron made of soft leather to keep his clothing clean. His hands were protected by cloth mittens that covered four of his fingers and the top of his hand. The blade of the header's knife was 19 to 22 cm long and 2 cm wide, and had two cutting edges. The handle was 11 to 14 cm long. The carpenter almost always performed the role of header. 89

The header grabbed two fish at a time and placed them on the splitting table. One after the other, he banged their heads on the edge of the table to break the backbone. He dropped the heads into a pen behind him, to the right, then cleaned the fish. The heart and spleen were set aside to be used as bait, and the liver was deposited in a basket or barrel. If the roe was to be salted, 90 it was also set aside. When the header finished his job, he slid the cod over to the splitter (Figure 10, c).

The splitter had a short leather apron. He wore a mitten on the hand that held the fish and a leather sleeve protector. His knife had a wide square blade, like a meat cleaver, about 21 cm long and 8 cm wide. Its handle was longer than that of the header's knife. The splitter split the cod from the neck to the anus and removed the backbone. He then threw the fish into the hold or an area 'tween-decks through an opening at the centre of the table. The captain or the pilot usually performed this job.

Apprentices and boys carried shovels of salt to the salter (Figure 13). The salter did the initial salting of the cod thrown down by the splitter, then stored the fish 'tween-decks or in the hold, placing them so that the tails were towards the bottom. He covered them with a layer of salt and another layer of cod then let them sit for 24 to 48 hours, to allow the blood and excess water to drain. When the cod was ready, the salter salted it once again and piled it up. 91 Sometimes the piles were so high that there were fish just below the upper deck. When the hold was full, the expedition ended and the ship returned to France. 92



THE BANKERS | HOW THE SHIPS WERE SET UP
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FISHERMAN | NIGHT FISHING
THE PREPARATION OF GREEN COD | WHAT THE FISHERMEN WORE
BEDDING | VIOLENCE BREAKS OUT


Design

 

 
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