The dhan bowe

This old iron dhan buoy, or bowe as they say hereabouts, is now high and dry on the sand dunes. Zoomify to see the barnacles.

The buoy is a relic of the days when larger sea fish such as cod and halibut were caught by line. The fishing vessels, mainly steam driven, laid out long lines, fitted with baited hooks, along the bottom of the sea. Each line, anchored and marked with a dhan buoy at each end, was a little over half a mile in length and usually carried about 120 large hooks each on a small lateral line (snood) attached to the main line at 20 foot intervals. Some 20 to 30 lines would be set by each vessel at a time, 10-15 miles of of line and 2500 to 3800 hooks fishing at once.

The iron dhan buoys had a ring to which the line was attached and a tubular hole running through them into which was thrust a wooden pole fitted with a flag to help in finding and recovering the line.