ts were out boarding fish on the carrier, and was
to lie as far to leeward of the coper as possible so that the men
could not go to both. Nineteen such floating depots were eventually
arranged for, with the precaution that if any one of them had to
return to port, he should bring no tobacco home, but hand over his
stock and accounts to a reliable friend.

These deep-sea fisheries were a revelation to me, and every hour of
the long trip I enjoyed. It was amazing to me to find over twenty
thousand men and boys afloat--the merriest, cheerfullest lot which I
had ever met. They were hail-fellow-well-met with every one, and never
thought of deprivation or danger. Clothing, food, customs, were all
subordinated to utility. They were the nearest possible thing to a
community of big boys, only needing a leader. In efficiency and for
their daring resourcefulness in physical difficulties and dangers,
they were absolutely in a class by themselves, embodying all the
traits of character which make men love to read the stories of the
buccaneers and other seamen of the sixteenth-century period.

Each fleet had its admiral and vice-admiral, appointed partly by the
owner, and partly by the skippers of the vessels. The devil-may-care
spirit was always a great factor with the men. The admiral directed
operations by flags in the daytime and by rockets at night, thus
indicating what the fleet was to do and where they were to fish.
Generally he had the fastest boat, and the cutters, hunting for the
fleet always lay just astern of the admiral, the morning after their
arrival. Hundreds of men would come for letters, packages, to load
fish, to get the news of what their last assignment fetched in market.
Moreover, a kind of Parliament was held aboard to consider policies
and hear complaints.

At first it was a great surprise to me how these men knew where they
were, for we never saw anything but sky and sea, and not even the
admirals carried a chronometer or could work out a longitude; and only
a small percentage of the skippers could read or write. They all,
however, carried a sextant and could by rule of thumb find a latitude
roughly. But that was only done at a pinch. The armed lead was the
fisherman's friend. It was a heavy lead with a cup on the bottom
filled fresh each time with sticky grease. When used, the depth was
always called out by the watch, and the kind of sand, mud, or rock
which stuck to the grease shown to the skipper. "Fifte