The Land of the Long Night Part 21

CHAPTER XXIX

DEPARTURE FOR THE FISHING BANKS.--GREAT NUMBER OF BOATS.--MORE THAN FIVE THOUSAND OARS FALL INTO THE WATER AT THE SAME TIME.--QUANt.i.tIES OF BUOYS AND GLa.s.s b.a.l.l.s.--A NOTABLE CATCH OF COD.

At four o'clock the next morning we were up. It was the dawn of the day.

It was wonderful how quickly the nights shortened. Coffee, flat bread, b.u.t.ter, and cheese made our breakfast.

When we came out almost all the boats with their full crews were ready waiting for the hoisting of the flag at five o'clock, which is the signal for the start, the time changing according to the length of the day. We all had to leave together, and to return the same day. Every one, including myself, was dressed in oilskin garments, sou'wester, and high sea-boots. There were more than nine hundred fishing boats. As soon as the flag was hoisted over five thousand oars struck the water at the same time, and filled the air with a deep booming sound. I had never seen so many sea boats and oars together. It was a grand sight!

As soon as we were out of the harbor the boats hoisted their sails, and soon we were scattered in every direction, each boat going towards its buoys. I looked at the thousands of white sails with wonder.

Our fishing boat was a fine craft, forty-two feet long and about seven feet and a half beam. The p.o.o.p was decked under for a cabin, with bunks for the men to sleep in. The rudder-like oar, several feet long, is held by the captain, who sculls and steers at the same time.

Captain Ole was a regular "old salt." Our crew was composed of Sven, Hakon, Fridthjof, Ivor, Evert, Harald and Erik. Evert and Harald were lads about seventeen years old; they were learning to be hardy sailors like their father.

After a sail of three hours' beating against the wind, we came to the fishing banks and towards our buoys. The water for as far as I could see was filled with buoys and gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s (floaters to hold the nets) enclosed in netted ropes. These gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s were attached by a short cord to the nets to keep them floating, while stones at the bottom held the nets stretched. It was no easy matter to sail among them.

Looking at the mult.i.tudes of buoys I asked Captain Ole, "How can you ever find and recognize your own buoys?"

He answered smiling, "We can find our nets by the bearings, and every buoy has its special mark of ownership. It is hard work to haul in the nets, especially when the sea is rough. Each net is one hundred and twenty fathoms long, and about three fathoms deep;--we sailors do not count by yards but by fathoms. Each fathom is six feet long. In our boat we have to raise twenty-four nets tied together in fours."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "It is hard work to haul in the nets."]

"I will help you all I can," I replied; "I am willing to work. I have come to sea and I am in your boat as one of the crew, and I will try to do my part. I hope we are going to have good luck, and that the catch of cod will be big."

To Evert and Hakon was a.s.signed the duty of pulling in the nets. Two other men stowed the nets carefully. Near the net-reels were two men who hooked the fish as they appeared and threw them inside of the boat, and another man and I arranged the nets. How eager we were as the nets were hauled up to peep and see how plentiful the fish were; for these represented money--and the poor fishermen work so hard to get a livelihood.

The sea was rough and it took us about ten minutes to haul each net.

After they were all in, we estimated that we had caught about eight hundred codfish. This was considered a very fine catch. Then a consultation was held to decide where to re-set the nets. It was very important to know the direction in which the fish had gone on the banks, for these big shoals were constantly moving as they sp.a.w.ned.

After they had decided where to go our sail was hoisted, and we started for another part of the fishing banks; in the mean time the nets were inspected and put into good order. When we reached the spot, we sounded twice and found the sea too deep. When we found a depth of one hundred fathoms we set our nets, after which we returned home.

On our return we went on board of one of the ships, and our fish was bought by the captain at a little over eight dollars a "big hundred,"--that is, 112 cod.

On the deck of this ship were already several boat-loads of cod; the fish were cleaned, flattened, washed and salted, and laid in the hold on the top of one another.

The captain said to me: "When I am loaded I shall sail for my farm, and then lay the fish on the rocks to dry. I have a nice little home by the sea. I hope my boys will one of these days be sailors as I am." Then we shook hands with the captain and returned to our cabin.

Before we went to bed we learned that the catch of all the boats of the settlement that day had been over six hundred thousand cod.

The following morning found me ready to start at the appointed time for fishing with hook and line. The departure of the boats took place in the same manner as the day before. Our boat was not so large as the netting boat; it was not decked over.

Captain Johansen steered. The men of our crew were Mats, Pehr, Anders, Ole, Knut, and Roar.

Captain Johansen had fished in the Arctic regions for forty-two consecutive years. His face had been permanently reddened by the wind.

Whenever he had a chance he had his pipe in his mouth, and he told me that his pipe was one of his best friends.

We had a fair wind at the start and in about one hour the men came to their buoys. Then we lowered the sail. The sea was covered with boats; there were nearly fifteen hundred in sight, for they had come to that part of the banks from several other fishing settlements. These boats were manned by about eleven thousand sailors; men enough to man a big fleet of men-of-war.

Captain Johansen said: "We are going to have hard work raising our lines, but if we catch many fish the work will seem to be much lighter to us."

"That is so," I said, "Captain, for when I go hunting and see no game I get tired; but if I see plenty of game, then I can tramp all day without fatigue."

A large reel was placed on one side of the boat to haul in the line.

Before we began to haul the lines the captain remarked: "We attach four lines together; each line is one hundred fathoms long. The hooks are generally from four to six feet apart and there are about one hundred and twenty on each line. We have to pull in over twenty-four hundred fathoms or over twenty-six thousand feet of line, to which are attached about five thousand hooks."

"Indeed," I said to the captain, "it will be hard work and will take quite a while, especially if many fish are caught."

"I hope, nevertheless, we shall catch many," he replied with a smile, "for most of us have a home to keep and a wife and children to clothe and feed."

We began to haul in the lines on the reel. How we watched! How deep our eyes tried to see into the water! It was quite exciting. We were fortunate: a big shoal of fish had been pa.s.sing on that part of the banks, and on many a hook a cod was hanging. After we got through, we pulled towards another of our buoys, pa.s.sing several that belonged to other fishermen on the way.

Having pulled in about three hundred fathoms of our next line, we found that the rest of the line had drifted into a net and some of the hooks were caught and entangled in it, and we had a hard job to free the line.

Then we rowed to a third buoy belonging to us and began hauling. Almost every other hook had caught a fish. The faces of the fishermen were full of happiness. They felt that on that day they would have a great catch, when suddenly one of the men shouted, "Our line is entangled; I wonder whether it has fouled a net or another line." But as we pulled in the line we raised another line with it not belonging to us. We had a hard time to separate them, but after nearly half an hour's work succeeded in doing so. We had caught over two hundred cod on this line.

Our fourth line proved to be entangled in nets as well as also in several lines belonging to different owners. The untwisting was something awful, and it was no joke to separate them. Fortunately we could tell to whom the lines belonged, for each one is marked from distance to distance with the number of the boat and the letter of the district from which the craft comes. The rest of the lines were so badly tangled that we concluded to cut them. Then we pulled the cut pieces with the fish on them into our boat, intending to give them to their owners--not a difficult task, as the marks of ownership were on the tackles--and if they belonged to another settlement the fish would be sold and the money given them.

Captain Johansen and the crew thought the cod would remain two days more. Their advance guard had pa.s.sed, but a great deal of the shoal was going northward; and there were miles of cod still to pa.s.s over the bank upon which we fished.

The wind had been gradually rising. We had had two days of good weather, and now the sea was covered with white caps. The daughters of aegir and Ran were all white-hooded. But as we sailed for home the wind suddenly increased; squall after squall followed each other. We had to reef the sail; the sea at times washed over us, and the poor fishermen began to think seriously of throwing our cargo of fish overboard, for we were pretty deeply loaded, but it would have been like throwing away money, and they had worked so hard to get it.

A big black cloud overspread our heads and hail fell thickly upon us, and it hurt us badly for the hailstones were hard and very big. I tried to protect my face, for my sou'wester only protected well the back of my head. The hail was succeeded by sleet, the rigging and mast were covered with ice; our garments and sou'westers were stiff, and we looked like big icy things. The captain, looking at me with a smile,--for he saw I did not like this sort of weather, said: "This weather is the forerunner of spring in these high lat.i.tudes; the sun is getting higher at its meridian every day."

It was dark long before we reached port, but the men knew every rock on the coast, and yonder was the lighthouse guiding us on our way. Boat after boat entered the harbor, and not one of them was lost.

The next day the gale was such that no boat was permitted to put out to sea. In the evening there was very little talking, and for a while no one said a word; then Captain Johansen broke the silence and said: "Paul, this Arctic Ocean is the home of gales; these often bring sadness to many homes; some of us here have lost friends and relatives at sea.

Some years ago a fishing fleet of eight hundred boats was caught in one of these sudden gales. After the boats had come safely into port the roll-call showed that twenty boats with their crews were missing."

"How sad!" I exclaimed; and as Captain Johansen was speaking I wondered how many people thought, when they ate fish, of the hard life of the poor and brave fishermen and of the gales they encounter.

The fishermen wanted to entertain me before we retired for the night, and Captain La.r.s.en said, "I will tell you, Paul, about one of the great sea battles of the Vikings."

CHAPTER x.x.x

A GREAT VIKING SEA FIGHT.--SVEIN KING OF DENMARK, OLAF KING OF SWEDEN, ERIK JARL OF NORWAY, AGAINST KING OLAF TRYGGVa.s.sON OF NORWAY.--THEY LIE IN AMBUSH.--MAGNIFICENT SHIPS.--THE _LONG SERPENT_.--READY FOR THE FIGHT.--THE ATTACK.--THE _JARN BARDI_.--DEFEAT OF OLAF TRYGGVa.s.sON.

After we had cl.u.s.tered round Captain La.r.s.en, he gave three or four big puffs of his pipe and began:

The battle of Svold took place in the year one thousand. Olaf Tryggva.s.son, King of Norway, had left Vindland in the Baltic and was on his way back to Norway with his fleet. He was on his ship the _Ormrinn Lange_ (the "Long Serpent"). Svein, the King of Denmark, Olaf King of Sweden, and Erik Jarl of Norway, his enemies, lay in ambush for him under the island of Svold with all their ships. The three chiefs landed on the island. After a while they espied some ships of the fleet of Olaf. Among them was a particularly large and splendid one. Both kings said: "This is an exceedingly fine ship; it must be the _Long Serpent_."

Erik Jarl, who knew the _Long Serpent_, answered: "This is not the _Long Serpent_, which is much larger and grander, though this is a fine ship."

Ship after ship pa.s.sed by and the two kings took each of them to be the _Long Serpent_, but they received invariably the same answer from Erik Jarl.