shareman n OED share sb3 6 ~ man (1901) ' DAE ~ 1 4 (1687), DC esp Nfld (1820-) for sense I .1 Member of a fishing crew who receives a stipulated proportion of the profits of a vovage rather than wages.
[1810] 1971 ANSPACH 32 Among the servants emploved in this Bay. the number of sharemen is considerable. 1849 [FEILD] 60 Two Englishmen are also with them this summer [in Labrador], as sharemen; in the winter they go a-furring. [1851] 1954 INNIS 402 The men who come from Jersey are found everything. and a free passage out and home again. Six boats and twelve men are employed as sharemen, and get one third of the fish they take, and one third of the oil. [1888] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 371 The plaintiff in the court below, was really not engaged as a servant on wages, but as a shareman in the fishing voyage. 1900 PROWSE [Appendix] 92 Any person who shall enter into a contract in writing, to be signed by both parties or their agents ... for the performance of any duty within colony of Newfoundland as fisherman, shoreman, or shareman, and shall fail or refuse to perform such duty without showing sufficient cause. Penalty ... 1937 Seafisheries of Nfld 75 Sharemen are usually paid with a proportional part of the realized value of the fish and oil secured. The shareman's part of the proceeds of the voyage varies according to the terms of his engagement and the class of fishing in which he is employed. [1959] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) iii. 937 "The Loss of the Barbara Ann [Rodney]": Five sharemen were on board of the boat and fished out from the bay, / And when the season ended they prepared to sail away. [1961] 1965 ibid i, 114 "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen": We said to our skipper, 'What do you expect, / For us to go fulling all the puncheons on deck, / Go home in the fall, hoist 'em out on your wharf, / And then you will tell us we can't claim our part / As a crowd of bold sharemen.' T 40/1-64 He was what they call a shareman, gettin' this ten [quintals] out o' the hundred. Very hard to live in them days. Get nothing but the fish, you know. T 43-64 The merchants used to supply the owner, and we used to be sharemen, see, an' the owner takes half an' gives us half. That would leave you with half a share, of course. T 175/7-65 But that's how she was—half went for the traps, an' the schooner, an' then the other half was divided up among the sharemen. Ibid Some fellers just never considered the skipper man—what he was up against; how much time he put in in the twine loft, when perhaps the shareman, when he was finished he was free to go on an' make another dollar. 1975 BUTLER 60 Servants who went fishing for the merchant were sharemen. That is, the owner supplied the boat, equipment and food and the men were paid shares of the fish caught. The value of the fish caught was divided between the owner of the boat and the crew. The owner would take half and the crew half; hence the name sharemen.
2 Phr come/go shareman: to sign on as member of a fishing crew in return for a share in the profits of the voyage.
1957 Evening Telegram 6 Aug I wonder would he come shareman with me? T 100/2-64 When you go fishin' you go shareman—you get your share o' fish. 1966 SCAMMELL 39 Lige lived in a nearby house with his old mother and went shareman with them every year.
