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Their builders were artists and craftsmen

Over the centuries different kinds of boats have been used for inshore fishing for cod along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. In early times the shalloway and shallop used and in later times punts, highrats and jacks or bullies. These were used in handline fishing, also called hook and line fishing.

With the introduction of the codtrap a new type of boat was needed, one rather long, broad in the beam and somewhat shallow in draught. This was the trapskiff. It was propelled by six oars, a seventh being used got sculling and steering. It was probably an adaptation of the old cod seine boat which was of the same general build but larger and heavier than the trapskiff.

Although the use of the codtrap made a new type of boat necessary and introduced a new technique of fishing, it did not do away entirely with handline fishing  and the use of the highrat and the bully. Indeed many of the trap fishermen made use of both methods of fishing: the trap for the summer fishery when the cod came close to the shore and lines for the fall fishery on the numerous offshore shoals and banks that constitute the drowned valleys of the Labrador coast. Moreover many fishermen never made use of the trap at all but continued to use the handline only. They preferred this type of fishing as involving less overhead expense and also as offering a better chance of obtaining a good catch. The trap fisherman had to fix his trap in a certain place or berth and wait for the fish to enter it; whereas the handline fishermen in his highrat or bully could range over an area having a radius of a dozen miles or more, in search of his prey.

The highrat was used chiefly for fishing on the nearer banks and shoals that lay within a few miles of the harbor or cove in which the fishermen had his fishing room. They were about the size of a four- oared punt and could carry six or seven barrels of round cod. They were fitted with a moveable mast which carried a mainsail and a jib. A small mizzen or spanker was carried at the sterns. The boat was steered by means of a rudder or a sculling oar and had a crew or two men or a man and a boy.

A heavier load

The distinguishing feature of the highrat was the plank, about four inches high, which ran along the top side of each gunnel from stem to stern. These planks were called wash- boards and served to increase the height of the gunnels above the water line, thus making it possible for the boat to carry a heavier load. This heightening of the sides of the boat gives us a clue to the origin of the queer name of “highrat”.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of the word “higher”, which is usually an adjective or an adverb, can also be used as a verb, through such usage is somewhat rare. “To higher” anything means to make it higher, just as “to lower” anything means to make it lower. The form of the verb “to higher” denoting past time, is, of, course, “highered”. Early generations of fishermen would sometimes pronounce the ending “-ed” as a separate syllable. Thus talk-ed, walk-ed, and higher-ed. Moreover in everyday speech the first “e” of “highered” would be squeezed out so to speak, and the “d” would take on the sound of “t”. Thus we would have higher-ed, high-rat, and more broadly high-rat. The “highrat” boat then was the “highered” boat; the boat whose sides were “highered” by means of the washboards as described. 

The bully was much larger size being capable of carrying 20 barrels of round fish. They had to spars carrying a carried a mainsail and a jib. There were no booms on the sails as these would be in the way of fishing. In fact, there was no need  of a fore-boom an arrangement, known as outriggers were pieces of timber four or five feet long and two or three inches in diameter. Each boat had two. They were laid among  the deck to which they were securely fastened, one on each side of the stern. Each passed through a hole in the stern some two feet. At the outer end of each outrigger a block was fastened through which a part of the main sheet was rove, the sheet being in two parts. The outrigger was an outstanding feature of the bullies and made a main boom unnecessary. In consequence the mainsail “as well as the foresail, when not in use, could be rolled up and tied to the mast, thus leaving a clear space for the work of fishing.

An important feature

The bully was partially decked, some of the deck boards being moveable. It has three undecked spaces called respectively the fore, after and midship standing rooms. Here the crew stood or sat, and fished and handled the boat when under sail. There was also a space for ballast on which was an arrangement for cooking. The fore cuddy could be used for sleeping  quarters and the remainder of the space for the storage of fish. An important feature of these boats was their considerable depth towards the stern as compared with their depth near the stem. This depth was obtained by building up the keel with pieces of timber placed one on top of the other lengthwise along the keel. They were known, appropriately enough, as deadwoods. This depth of keel served two purposes: it prevented or at least lessened, the drift to leeward, when the bully was sailing close- hauled and it enabled the boat to be turned around quickly during the maneuvers of tacking and wearing , assisted of course, by the sails and the rudder.

Because of their build and rig these boats were admirably adopted to the purpose for which they were designed. This was to make available to the fishermen the off-shore fishing grounds along the coats of Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly the latter. At Labrador some of the best fishing grounds were as much as 20 miles out at sea from the harbors where the fishing rooms were located. In making the trip forth and back the boats had to encounter short, choppy seas and strong currents and had to negotiable narrow channels between numerous small islands. There was also the ever present danger of sudden squalls, particularly in the fall and many stories are told of hair- beneath escapes and losses. There was often a lot of good-natured rivalry among the crews of the bullies, each crew extolling the merits of its own boat and in securing a good catch of fish.  

The owners of these boats were usually their builders as well, and naturally took a great pride in their workmanship. They were craftsmen and artists. They did not have to work in bits and pieces  as is the practice today, but were engaged in the whole process from start to finish . They thus had the deep satisfaction of creating something beautiful and always useful. But they not only built the boats; they also made their sails and rigged them. In fact, they did everything except perhaps the ironwork which was usually made by the village blacksmith sailmaker’s palm and needles as they were with the carpenter’s plane and saw.

Now long vanished

The highrat and the bully have long since vanished from the scene. As noted above, the invention of the codtrap brought about a decrease in their use and the decline of the fall fishery occasioned a further decrease. But what finally brought about their total disappearance was the introduction of the motor boat. Already in 1905 there could be heard the click, click, of what must have been a very primitive type of combustion engine, in many of the harbors along the Labrador coast. This engine propelled a small boat belonging to a certain Captain Jensen who was a fish-buyer for European firms and who arranged for the loading of the dry fish vessels some of them Danish barquentines- that used to come to Labrador in those days to load dry cod for Mediterranean ports. In the course of his duties Captain Jensen was a frequent visitor to the various harbors and his boat was a familiar sight to the various harbors and his boat was a familiar sight to the fishermen living in them. Little did they think as they observed the ease with which the Captain did not claim them, they were laid to rest in the good earth in private grounds or in Church cemeteries, Tombstones of slate or marble mark some of the graves but many have  nothing more than rough stones at either end. They themselves, engaged as they were in a bitter struggle for subsistence, had little time or means to devote to the dead. The present generation has, perhaps, no such excuse. It would be an act of piety as well as recognition of the importance of preserving the traditions and historical relics of our Newfoundland communities, if steps could be taken to preserve and maintain these burying grounds in decent condition, many of which are now threatened with destruction. Should it be thought that the relics of such humble people are hardly of sufficient importance to warrant much attention, we may remind ourselves that it was not very long ago that these men in their highrats and bullies, their trapskiffs and dories, were the mainstay of the economy of this island of ours. 

Evening Telegram, July19, 1967

 

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