When we were driving through New Brunswick in the Squid Wagon, we saw these ladders several times, and we don’t know exactly what they are for. You can’t see it clearly in this picture, but there are some ropes which would allow the height or angle of them to be adjusted somewhat.
This picture was taken on Deer Island, in the Bay of Fundy in a little cove. I think that there is still some commercial fishing going on there, so these might be for fishing. They definitely are in the part of the Bay that has pretty big tides, probably 25 or 30 feet.
If you know what these are, leave a comment…heck, even if you have a decent guess, leave a comment!
They’re for attaching sky hooks.
The fishing boats use them to keep from sinking.
The Andria Gail would have been ok had they attached theirs prior to leaving port.
My guess is that they are a form of pile-driver used by herring fishers to drive their weir stakes into the bottom.
The little barges are pile drivers, they drive the poles in the mud to construct a herring weir. A heavy weight is hoisted up the mast and dropped on the pole driving it into the bottom. The ladder is used to climb up and service the equipment at the top. Bruce says they used to do this in Digby Basin and Saint Marys Bay too.