Grappling hook

In addition to the basic tools, the success of the fishing often depended on the use of various accessories which played an important role in fishing. They were often home-made and passed down from generation to generation. An example of such accessory is kotewka - a small anchor-like tool used for finding and retrieving longlines, which were a common fishing tool used in Pomerania in the early 20th century. The “working” part of the kotewka - a lead sleeve - was attached to a short wooden handle with a hole through which the line was drawn. The fisherman would throw the kotewka in the direction of the lines with hooks, which would catch on nails regularly spaced on the sides, so that the fisherman could pull them to himself. These were quite rare tools, as different types of small anchors were much more commonly used to pull out longlines. The presented kotewka comes from Trzebieża, from the first half of the 20th century. It is the only specimen of this type in the fishery collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin. It was acquired for the collection in 1948.

Agnieszka Słowińska