MASSACHUSETTS: NEW BEDFORD DISTRICT. 271 



iu a large profit. Most of the catch was taken off the coast of Maine, where the fishiug was 

 carried on through the entire season. The fish have not been seen on their usual summer grounds 

 for the past two years in any large numbers, and neither the early spring nor southern catch has 

 paid expenses. The usual manner of running the steamers is as follows: The owners of the 

 steamer furnish the vessel, engineer, fishing-gear, water and coal for the motive power, and the, 

 crew furnish their provisions, wages of cook, and board of fishermen. The captain hires his 

 crew by the mouth or they go on shares. The owners receive one-half of the catch and the crew 

 the other half. The master also receives an additional commission of from 5 to 7 cents a barrel. 

 Steamers on Long Island Sound usually pay so much a thousand for the fish, 3 barrels of fish to 

 the thousand count. During 1879 the fleet from this port caught 55,700 barrels of menhaden, 

 which were sold at the factories of Long Island Sound and Maine at 25 cents a barrel. During 

 1880 five of the steamers report a catch of 45,925 barrels of menhaden and 1,800 barrels of mack- 

 erel. The former sold at 30 cents a barrel and the latter sold fresh in the Boston market. 



Scallops are plenty in the Acushnet River and large quantities are taken with dredges from 

 October through the winter. The business has of late years greatly increased. When the season 

 opens iu the fall, about 2 bushels iu the shell are required to make 1 gallon of solid meats, which 

 weighs about 7 pounds. Scallops are always sold by the gallon. 



Eels are found very plenty in the river and near creeks and bays. They are mostly caught in 

 a box-trap of simple and cheap construction. This is 4 feet long, 10 inches wide, with slatted 

 sides. There is a hole in each end 4 inches square. In the aperture are placed two small wooden 

 slats. The eels slide in with ease, the slats opening as they glide in and immediately closing. 

 The box is weighted with stones and baited with clams. 



Thirty small sail-boats of sloop or schooner rig, of less than 5 tons each, and therefore not 

 under license, are used by forty-five fishermen in the near home fishery. They catch their fish 

 chiefly in Buzzard's Bay; it consists of tautog, scup, flounders, and eels, with a small amount of the 

 other large species found in the bay. Many swordfish are caught in their season. The average 

 amount of scallops taken every fall and winter is about 4,000 bushels. No fishing is carried on in 

 midwinter. 



The food-fish fishery of New Bedford employs fourteen vessels, aggregating 189.75 tons, and 

 valued, with gear and outfit, at $13,990. In the menhaden fishery there is a fleet of seven steamers 

 and one schooner, aggregating 520.46 tons, and valued, with their gear and outfit, at $69,276. 

 Several vessels which obtained licenses in the general fisheries did not engage in that industry. 

 They were mostly yachts that under those licenses were entitled to certain privileges not otherwise 

 granted. Une vessel of 84.65 tons, valued, with outfit, at $13,000, sailed in 1880 for the Antarctic 

 fur-seal fishery. 



New Bedford has for many years been the chief whaling port of the United States. The 

 whale fishery was pursued here as early as 1755, and in 1765 four vessels were engaged in it. At 

 the period of the Revolutionary war there were fifty to sixty vessels, but most of them were 

 destroyed. After the war the business revived, but was again prostrated by the war of 1812. It 

 was renewed iu 1818, and the number of vessels gradually increased till 1857, when the New Bed- 

 ford fleet numbered 324 sail, aggregating 110,867 tons. Various causes have led to a decline in 

 this industry, among which were the panic of 1857, the destruction of thirty vessels by Confederate 

 cruisers during the late war, and the loss, in 1871, of twenty-four vessels in the Arctic Ocean. 

 Another and perhaps the chief cause of a decline was the substitution of cotton-seed oil and 

 petroleum for whale oil. The great quantities in which these oils could be obtained made them 

 so cheap tlat whale-oil dealers could not enter into fair competition for the trade. New Bedford 



