A shop selling items for fishing ships

[Elena]

Please, help! My character helps another one to buy a harpoon. Somebody had advised them to go to a ship selling items for fishing ships. How to describe the shop? What do they see inside? (It is 1719, if it helps you).

[Iron Jon]

I would think that he would go to the blacksmith to have a harpoon head made in any style that he wanted.

[Jas. Hook]

Perhaps a ship's chandler for the pole and line but for the harpoon but i'd lean more towards Iron John's suggestion of a local blacksmith.

Jas. Hook

[jendobyns]

Please, help! My character helps another one to buy a harpoon. Somebody had advised them to go to a ship selling items for fishing ships. How to describe the shop? What do they see inside? (It is 1719, if it helps you).

I'm not sure there would have been such a fishing specific shop in 1719. A lot of items were trade-specific in how they were purchased locally, iirc. And shops that carried things from multiple trades might carry things for fishing boats and farmers, household goods, etc., depending on the needs of the area, and possibly determined by how large a community they're in (more room to specialize in a large city than a small village). Later period advertisements from merchants in the PA Gazette, for example, show all sorts of things "newly arrived" on ship X, from food items to eye glasses, being sold at the sign of Whatever, on Y Street, next to Craftsman A, B and Tavern C. There's no reason to assume a large shift in practices from the end of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th, when with all the other changes in goods we still practice things that way even today.

So, basically what I'm saying is that a shop which carries harpoons, if not coming from a craftsman whose trade is specifically that sort of equipment (things utilizing the same materials and skills), could also contain horse harness and teapots, etc. And of course, most likely, other things useful to the fishing trade

Hopefully, that was a little helpful! (or was it totally confusing?)

[jendobyns]

Please, help! My character helps another one to buy a harpoon. Somebody had advised them to go to a ship selling items for fishing ships. How to describe the shop? What do they see inside? (It is 1719, if it helps you).

I just realized what I just posted may not be where you were trying to go with this question. Other things might be nets, sail cloth, ropes, large needles and either hemp or linen cord for repairing nets and sails, sailmaker's palms, pitch, possibly baskets or other containers for fish that are caught (they're not gonna carry a load of fish in their arms, eh?) These things aren't neatly stored on lines of shelves like a modern store, but stacked and folded and leaning up against walls (and hanging on them) for the larger items, in boxes or barrels for others. Smaller things could be on counters or on shelves behind the counters. If you look at period art work, this seems to be the way things are done. Some shops (I'm trying to remember the engraving where I think I saw this) could have items stacked neatly on tables in the shop.

Your best bet is to start looking at art work online. Good luck!

[Elena]

Thank you very much, you helped me a lot! I think Jen understood me the best, even if the others' sugestions are good too. She helped me solving my problem. Well, partially it was that I didn't know where to look for the artwork, and the other problem was vocabulary connected. I mean, English is still a foreign language to me, and, irrespectively that I speak it fluently, I am still struggling with some specific vocabulary (besides the fact that, not having anybody in my family into fishing, I think I wouldn't know even in my mother tongue how some things I see in the picture are called )

[Jas. Hook]

Elena -

I'd follow the ship's chandler lead, it would be a shop / warehouse that would stock equipment and consumables for a ships outfitting and perhaps harpoons, hooks, floats, etc. for fisherman. Remember that most fisherfolk were dirt poor and would most likely have made most of their own equipment.

There is a ship chandler shop at Mystic Seaport with a display of their wares. Perhaps there is a picture of it on their web site.

Jas. Hook

[Jas. Hook]

An important business in any seaport was the ship chandlery. This store carried just about anything needed on a vessel. The chandler had to know the community in which he lived as well as the ships that put into port. He carried specialized equipment, such as those items needed in the fishing or whaling industry if those were the type of vessels he serviced on a regular basis. Typical stores included salted fish, beef, and pork, ship's biscuits (hardtack), molasses, potatoes, onions, spices, flour, rum, tobacco, blankets, pipes, knives, clothing, navigational instruments, lanterns, buoys, logbooks, inkstands, needles, beeswax, canvas, marine hardware, paint, and oil. These particular pictures are of the ship chandlery at Mystic Seaport, which showcases items of the 19th century.

[Fox]

Remember that most fisherfolk were dirt poor and would most likely have made most of their own equipment.

There's some very interesting (in a certain sense of the word) information about how fishermen were financed and supplied in Daniel Vickers' Farmers & Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850.

[Jas. Hook]

Remember that most fisherfolk were dirt poor and would most likely have made most of their own equipment.

There's some very interesting (in a certain sense of the word) information about how fishermen were financed and supplied in Daniel Vickers' Farmers & Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850.

Foxe -

Whoo-Boy... more winter reading.

Jas. Hook

[jendobyns]

Exactly! Great pics!

An important business in any seaport was the ship chandlery. This store carried just about anything needed on a vessel. The chandler had to know the community in which he lived as well as the ships that put into port. He carried specialized equipment, such as those items needed in the fishing or whaling industry if those were the type of vessels he serviced on a regular basis. Typical stores included salted fish, beef, and pork, ship's biscuits (hardtack), molasses, potatoes, onions, spices, flour, rum, tobacco, blankets, pipes, knives, clothing, navigational instruments, lanterns, buoys, logbooks, inkstands, needles, beeswax, canvas, marine hardware, paint, and oil. These particular pictures are of the ship chandlery at Mystic Seaport, which showcases items of the 19th century.

[Fox]

Remember that most fisherfolk were dirt poor and would most likely have made most of their own equipment.

There's some very interesting (in a certain sense of the word) information about how fishermen were financed and supplied in Daniel Vickers' Farmers & Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850.

Foxe -

Whoo-Boy... more winter reading.

Jas. Hook

And if you like that then you'll probably also get on with Vickers' Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail .

Edited December 1, 2010 by Foxe

[Jackdaw]

The shop I use is usually Morrisons where I buy

Vinegar

Salt

Curry sauce

Gravy

.................sorry , thought you said items for fish and chips!

HaHa! me hearties! caught you out with my very old seafaring joke!

[Elena]

Thank you very much, all of you! You gave me ideas not only for the scene I had to write yesterday, but also for different future ones! (And, by the way, my writing partner had a lot of fun when I described it, including the horse harnesses and especially teapots )

Jackdaw, I don't need to go to UK for fish and chips, we have here at the seaside and at the beer festivals too

Edited December 1, 2010 by Elena