Name: Fisher Hall
Current Craftmaster: (Open)
Colors: Sea-Blue
Purpose: This Tillek-based craft comprises several specialties under the tutlege of he Masterfisher.
Under the Masterfisher there are Master captains and Mastercraftsmen; and under them are the captains, who rate their journeyman
seamen according to tradition: seaman able-bodied, second mate, first mate. Apprentices act as cabin boys and lure tiers.
Shipbuilding includes construction and maintenance of boats, improvements on lines and sheets, and learning to choose materials
for sails. Seamanship also involves basic navigation, understanding of the wind and sea currents, and the study of individual
coastlines, underwater reefs in southern waters, and navigable rivers. Journeymen are taught to make maps of the generally
accepted trade routes and the locations of the moorings best sheltered from the wind. Chart making is a precise craft, and
only those who have fair hands as copyists are trusted to make charts, since many men's lives will depend on them.
Very accurate charts have been handed down to the Fishercraft from their remote ancestors. Modern seamen have ceased to
wonder how the Archive charts of the coastal waters are so incredibly accurate and detailed, and are just grateful that they
are so. The knowledge that these are original fax pictures taken by the atmospheric probes has been lost since Moreta's day,
when the Masterfisher succumbed to the plague, as did so many of his crafters. All that an apprentice today knows is that
he had better copy those charts correctly.Any sea captain will want to have charts with him of his own copying, and keeps
archives of sailing dates and cargo carried on board his ship.
It is easy to learn the basics of fishing. Apprentices start off tying lures, coiling ropes, scrubbing and polishing ship's
wood and brass, and repairing nets. The journeymen do most of the actual work of fishing aboard a boat. They set the nets
and haul in the catch, and both journeymen and their apprentices have the messy job of cleaning the fish. A Masterfisher knows
how to judge where and when a good run of fish will appear, and will captain a crew to go and bring in the catch. All year
round the women, children, and apprentices dry fish to store for use over the long, cold winter.
The personality of each man working on a ship needs to dovetail as well with his mates' as his skill does, for the crew
that builds a ship usually sails her as well. This way, the crew know the ship, every ring, spar, and board of her, before
she hits the water, saving precious sevendays that would otherwise be spent learning the vessel and her quirks. Their own
lives thus depend upon their own work.
Location: Tillek Hold
Information curtesy of the Dragonlover's Guide to Pern
