salt bulk n [phonetics unavailable]. Cp DC ~ Nfld [1861-]. Freq in phr in salt-bulk. Cp BULK n.
1 A quantity of salt, esp when heaped in the hold of a boat or vessel.
1870 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 23 It is amusing to watch them loading salt aboard their vessels. They come alongside with a large boat full of salt. A sail is let down from the ship's gunwale to that of the boat to prevent the salt being lost overboard. A number of men with large wooden shovels throw the salt up on to the vessel's deck singing all the while in a sort of measured sing song tone. At every bar they dig their shovels into the salt bulk then at a given moment all heave up together and so on till the cargo is aboard.
2 A e of split, washed and salted cod-fish placed not yet dried in a fishing stage or aboard a vessel; cp FAGGOT n, HORSE, E n, WATER-HORSE. This use merges in some contexts with sense 3.
1925 Dial Notes v, 340 ~ Fish in its storing vat. 1955 Nfld Fisheries Board No 23 ~ Fish which has been not less than three weeks in the original saltbulk in store and then reed in store for a period of not less than 10 days; fish which has been not less than three weeks in the original saltbulk in vessel and then reed in store for a period of not less than 10 days; fish which has been heavily salted on board a vessel for a period of less than three weeks and then reed and resalted in store in bulk for a period not less than 20 days. T 43-64 The fish had to be laid out perfect, you know, in the salt bulk, an' salted. 1977 BURSEY 166 The premises must be made strong enough to take the fish that we would e in salt bulk. 1979 NEMEC 248 Any fish ... which was salted and stored in 'saltbulks' in local stages for sale later in the summer or fall, was not included.
3 A stage of preserving cod-fish temporarily in salted es; the fish itself, wet and salted but not yet dried; GREEN FISH.
1861 DE BOILIEU 31 The cod is now placed in what is called salt-bulk, where it may remain any period of time; for, so long as fish is being caught in the bay, so long will the 'drying' and 'washing'—which constitute the final process—be delayed. 1933 Nfld Royal Commission Report 97 The fish caught on the Banks are gutted, washed and split on the vessels and then put into what is known as 'salt-bulk,' viz., they are stowed in the hold in a heavily salted condition without being dried or cured, the salt acting as a dehydrating preservative. 1946 MACKAY (ed) 82 By far the larger part of the Labrador catch is carried back to Newfoundland in salt bulk (after it has been salted but before it has been exposed to the sun), where the curing process is completed by the fishermen and their families. 1954 INNIS 462 In 1910, American firms were engaged in purchasing green fish—now known as salt bulk, i.e. fish wet-salted in es—in Newfoundland. T 175/7-65 'Tis leaved in salt bulk for so long, washed out and then in press perhaps a day or a couple o' days. 1972 MURRAY 247 Trapping crews usually put most of their fish in 'salt bulk' (i.e., dry salted in big rectangular es) and worked as a unit—men and women—to 'wash out' the salted fish. This was put in 'water horse' (the washed fish, back up, in rectangular es) overnight till the water pressed out of it. 1973 HORWOOD 75 It was in the spring of the year 1940 that a group of Greek merchants came to Grand Bank and bought twelve thousand quintals of fish in salt bulk to be delivered by Newfoundland vessels to Patras, the port that serves Athens.
4 Phr sell salt-bulk: to sell cod-fish in its salted but undried condition.
T 139-65 There was none sold salt-bulk, like they sells now, at them times. They had to dry it all.
5 Attrib.
[1953] 1978 Evening Telegram 8 Nov, p. 13 Advance prices for saltbulk and fresh fish were demanded in a key resolution. 1960 FUDGE 16 [The vessel] was loaded with salt bulk cod fish. 1975 BUTLER 69 The salt bulk fish would be packed in bulks in the stores. 1976 CASHIN 81 In a few cases we even bought salt-bulk fish from the Nova Scotia banking vessels and cured it ourselves on our flakes at Cape Broyle. 1981 Evening Telegram 5 Sep, p. 7 Boat loads of saltbulk fish continue to arrive regularly [at Catalina] from the Labrador.
