saving ppl Cp OED ~ 5 'not turning to loss, though not gainful' obs (1614-1832). See also SAVE.
Comb saving trip: moderately profitable fishing or sealing venture; cp TRIP.
1873 CARROLL 36 Nine tenths of [the ice-hunting masters] when they first took charge of ice-hunting vessels generally brought into port what is usually termed 'good saving trips.' [1896] SWANSBOROUGH 35 "The Seal Fishery": This is the way that many crews / Must get their trip, or else must lose / For the out-fits are very high; / So both skippers and men must try / To get at least a saving trip. [1929] 1933 GREENLEAF (ed) 299 "The Greenland Disaster": From that until the twenty-first all seemed bright and gay, / And for to get a saving trip they killed and panned away.
saving voyage: see saving trip; cp VOYAGE.
[1766] 1971 BANKS 134 200 Quintals a boat is Calld a saving Voyage, but not under. [1786] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 198 The codfish also had been so scarce this summer, that few people are likely to kill a saving voyage. 1936 SMITH 130 There was a sign of fish; all hands then set the traps, but the fish was not so plentiful. Everyone secured a saving voyage with traps and hooks combined. 1941 WITHINGTON 129-30 All were eagerly going north on the chance of a 'savin vige,' as the season's work was called. The year before and for several years, the haul had been light; but the men were always buoyed up by hope in the great gamble of the Labrador, the gamble for their very existence—cod being practically their only means of livelihood. 1977 BURSEY 132 We both had made a saving voyage by keeping our traps in the berths.
