I'm thinking that seafarers would be able to catch a lot of their food 'on the fly' as it were....
But I'm not sure if you can catch fish off a moving ship.
I seen some Captain's logs but I don't remember seeing anything about what fish were caught.
To narrow my question down, between the years 1500 to 1850AD. What are the records for procuring fish while in transit?
Thanks!
(I thought of this while holding forth over a plate of my wife's salted cod and spaghetti tonight.)
Little to no fish, at least in the deep ocean. Most commercially available fish (even in the present day with deep sea bottom trawlers) is in shallow waters near coasts, or on banks or reefs like the Grand Banks off the North American coast. Columbus' ships would have been stored with biscuit or flour, dried vegetables and stockfish (which could easily have been cod caught by the Portuguese on the Banks and sold in Europe). Some sea captains took advantage of fish when they could be caught, or bought fish (and information) from fishermen inshore, but no prudent captain would rely on deep-sea fishing for his caloric needs.