fleet n OED ~ sb¹ 3 (1879-1892); EDD ~ sb¹ 5 'a number of fishing lines or nets'; Cent ~ ¹ n 3 (Nfld: 1846) for sense 2.
   1 Two or more nets strung or tied together.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 14 When the salmoniers visited their nets this morning, they found that the Indians had stolen one fleet. 1792 ibid Gloss i, x Fleet of nets. A number of nets, which are fastened to each other, in such manner as to form a pound, or pounds. A fleet of salmon-nets, commonly speaking, is but three. But there is no determined number for a fleet of Stopper-nets for seals. 1861 DE BOILIEU 41 Besides the cod, Labrador is rich in salmon. The mode of catching these is with a 'fleet' of three nets, which are fastened to each other so as to form a pound; the fish in striking the first and even the second of these may not be meshed, but he cannot escape the third, as, when once there, it is impossible for it to retrace its swim. 1925 Dial Notes v, 331 Fleet of nets. Two nets. T 54/60-64 Well, I dreamt I was a killick, an' I was on a fleet o' nets up in Hall's Bay, moorin' for a fleet o' nets. 1975 Evening Telegram 24 May, p. 6 He put the salmon nets up from $75 per fleet to approximately $300 per fleet. 1979 NEMEC 232 Nets are reset and 'fleets' (four nets strung together) of nets straightened out only when tidal conditions permit.
   2 In trawl-fishing for cod, a single line with one hundred hooks attached at intervals.
   1891 Cent ~ In fishing, a single line of 100 hooks: so called when the bultow was introduced in Newfoundland (1846). T 41--64 We take about twenty-eight hemp lines. We'd have four tubs o' lines, seven line tubs. Four sevens are twenty-eight, an' that's what we'd use for a dory. We'd have one fleet for to set [as] all-night gear, an' another set in the morning.

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