share n Cp OED ~ sb3 1 (1372-; esp 1544 quot), DC Nfld (1877, 1964) for sense 1; OED 3 d on shares (1792-), DAE ~ 1 3 (1656-) for sense 2.
1 One of the specified proportions assigned to owner and crew of the value of the catch taken in a fishing or sealing voyage after deducting the expenses of the enterprise, i.e. the 'boats's share.'
[1577-8] 1935 Richard Hakluyt 125 [Parkhurst's letter:] For ther is given out of every mans share, and of the shippes parte, and also the vytellers at the least xiid. uppon every syngell share. 1620 WHITBOURNE 29 The better sort of men [are yeerely hired by the Owners] for small wages, who have the benefit of their shares. [1663] 1963 YONGE 58 The men in these voyages have no wages but are paid after this manner: the owners have two thirds and the men one third; this one is divided into so many shares as there are men in the ship. [1723] 1954 INNIS 152 One or two ships from Barnstaple and Bideford continue to allow their company's [crew's] shares. 1881 RAE 19-20 It is found that by such means they are debauched, neglecting their labor, and poor ill-governed men not only spend most part of their shares before they come home upon which the life and maintenance of their wives and children depend. 1927 DOYLE (ed) 65 "Three Devils for Fish": Saying this is the summer we'll all get our share. 1933 Nfld Royal Commission Report 103 In cases where the vessel is owned and operated by an individual fisherman, the latter is responsible for obtaining the necessary outfit from the merchant, including salt for the entire catch and provisions for the crew. The value of the catch is then divided into two, one half being allotted to the vessel (i.e. to the captain, or owner), the other half being equally distributed among the crew. In the latter half, one share goes to the captain. Thus, in the case of a vessel carrying 20 men, exclusive of the captain, the latter received 1/2 + 1/42 of the total value of the catch, out of which he must square accounts with the merchant, while each of the men receives 1/42 of the value of the catch. 1937 Seafisheries of Nfld 75-6 The voyages are shared in almost every conceivable way, but the system for shore fishermen is usually two-thirds ... of the voyage between the sharemen and one-third for the owner. In some cases everyone shares alike and assumes proportionate responsibility for the cost of the outfit. In such case the owner of the fishing gear, i.e. traps, boats, engines, fishing rooms, etc., is allowed a full share or may be a share and a quarter, or half, for the use of his property [etc, etc]. 1964 BLONDAHL (ed) 75 "The Sealers' Song": His crew of bully northern men can handle gaff or gun, / To get their 'share' they'll risk and dare and think it all great fun. T 100/2-64 If the voyage, we'll say, turned out a thousand dollars, well the skipper took his share an' a share for the ship, an' the other seven or eight shares was divided up with the men. Now whatever that come to for each man, that's what they got for the summer. If they got no fish they got nothing. 1975 LEYTON 35 I went trapping after that, fishing with the Farrells... When you'd get up to man's age you'd get a full share.
2 Phr on shares: arrangement by which member of a fishing or trapping crew receives a proportion of the value of the catch rather than wages.
[1749] 1954 INNIS 152 All ships and boats ... are upon certain wages and not upon shares... Some give a premium upon every thousand of fish to encourage their men to industry, who keep an account of every fish they catch. [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i. 46 These men are engaged on, what is called, the shares; that is, they find their own provisions, and we furnish them with nets, &c. for the loan of which, we receive one half the produce of their labour; and, the other half, they engage to sell us at a stipulated price. [1771] ibid 146 Guy and his crew (who had engaged to fish for us this summer on the shares) having already suffered extremely for want of baits ... I proposed to them to cancel the former agreement. and to engage them on wages. 1866 WILSON 212 Some of the fishermen are not engaged for wages. but are on shares, and are said to cut their tails; which means that they cut a piece from the tail of the fish as soon as it is taken out of the water, by which the man's fish is known from the rest. Of this fish one half is his, as wages, and the other half belongs to the planter for the supplies. 1914 WALLACE 19 Bob thinks a wonderful lot o' Emily. He be only sixteen then, but a rare big an' stalwart lad for his years, an' unbeknown t' Richard an' his ma he goes t' Douglas Campbell, an' says t' Douglas, an' he lets he work th' Big Hill trail on shares th' winter. 1975 BUTLER 33 We then proceeded to Paradise and engaged in the cod-trap fishery on a full share basis as I had my own trap skiff and engine.
3 Comb share man: see SHAREMAN.
share money: cash earned from shared profits of a fishing voyage.
1853 SABINE 40 The vessels commonly left England in March and returned in September; the fishermen passing their winters at home, idly spending their summer's earnings, or 'share-money.'
