A Grand Banks schooner with dories stacked amidships and fishermen working on the decks

Dories were used as traditional fishing boats from the 1850s on the Grand Banks of the coast of Newfoundland. Small flat-bottomed boats with narrow transoms, they were inexpensive to build and could be stacked inside each other and stored on the decks of the larger fishing vessels which functioned as mother ships. Weather permitting, the dories were launched early each day with one or two crew and bait from previous catches. During the day they would return several times to the mother ship to unload their catches.