42 The Sea

must have had some salt in his blood because eventually four of his sons were coastal captains. The other earlier settlers all had at least a nodding acquaintance with the water and needed no one to provide them with ﬁsh.

The early merchants were the chief promoters of the ﬁsheries. They were the middlemen who furnished rope and salt and boats, and bought the dried ﬁsh at the end of the season. The ﬁrst merchants at Souris West who advertised that “ﬁshermen would be ﬁtted out and supplied on most liberal terms,” were William McKay and Company (later joined by Rufus Shat- tuck) who advertised further that they were “wholesale and retail dealers, ship chandlers and general importers at Georgetown and Souris”, and that they had “received by schooner, Trial, from Saint John, New Brunswick an assortment of dry goods and hardware”. Their manager at this time was John Knight.

Money was always a problem for the early ﬁsherman and credit for at least six months, his only salvation or downfall. Credit was worked through the early merchants. During the lean winter months, ﬁshermen were able to get food and supplies at the store of the merchant and pay for it with ﬁsh in the summer months. The drawback, of course, was that he had to sell to his creditor, who controlled the price paid for the ﬁsh.

In the census of 1861, one of these early merchants, Donald Beaton, put up 50 barrels of mackerel, 1740 barrels of herring, 3,000 quintals of dried cod and hake, and 1,500 gallons of ﬁsh oil. He had thirty boats for the use of ﬁshermen.

His competitor, John Knight, for the same period, put up 12 barrels of mackerel, 1,060 barels of herring and alewives, 1,904 quintals of dried cod and bake, and 1,200 gallons of ﬁsh oil. He owned twenty-eight boats. These were doubtless small boats manned by two ﬁshermen. They rowed on calm days and so didn’t go very far and were boosted along with a little sail when they got a favourable wind—truly inshore ﬁshing. More will be written about these two important men later.

Sealing:

In the early years of the last century, members of the Island Legislature were being constantly prodded by the press to do something about the ﬁsheries. They pointed to the money made in Newfoundland on seal and cod and thought Islanders should do likewise. Eventually, perhaps because of the prodding press, bounties were paid on exported ﬁsh.

Bounties were also offered for the three highest catches made by Island- owned and Island-equipped sealing vessels. These were further subsidized by ten shillings per ship ton for equipment. In 1848, three sealers cleared Souris on March 20 for the ice packs and sealing grounds. These ships were owned by Joseph Dingwell of Fortune, Donald Beaton of Souris and Messrs Deagle and Chaisson of Rollo Bay. The harbour that year was clear of ice in mid-March but the report two months later in the Royal Gazette was that a “great quantity of ﬂoating ice is still off Souris Harbour driven up and down the Gulf with the wind and tide”.

“Of the three sealers ﬁtted out for the ice, the one belonging to Joseph Dingwell has returned to port having, we regret to say, only 100 seals on board but these are of very large size.”

Dingwell’s vessel was the Margaret and its tonnage bounty amounted to £23 10s. There is no report for the Rollo Bay vessel belonging to Beagle and Chaisson. However, the Acadians were good sealers. In a much earlier