146 GEOGEAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



equipments and receive one-fourth or one-fifth of the receipts after the charges for wharfage and 

 tonnage have been deducted; the crew pay for fishing- gear, dories, bait, ice, and provisions, and 

 share equally in the balance. In the Grand Bank cod fishery and the Greenland halibut fishery 

 part of the crew are sometimes hired by the month and have no personal share in the catch. In 

 the frozen-herring trade the men are all hired. This cannot be called a fishery on the part of the 

 Gloucester vessels, since the fish are all purchased. 



The old method of settling with the crews in the cod-fishery vessels was to wait perhaps four 

 or five months until the fish were cured and sold. A certain amount was charged for the expense 

 of curing, and each man received a share in the crew's half of the net receipts. This method is 

 still practiced at Cape Cod and at some other places in New England, but at Gloucester the voyage 

 is at once settled, often on the same day the vessel arrives, or as soon as the fish are weighed off. 

 Salt codfish are bought from the vessel at so much a hundredweight, usually about 60 or 75 per 

 cent, of the value of dry cod. Mackerel are bought at so much per 200 pounds in fishermen's order, 

 called selling "out of pickle," or they are packed and inspected and the crew paid their share after 

 deducting from $1.50 to $2 per barrel for the expense of packing, which includes the cost of the 

 barrel, salt, and labor. 



The average annual amount realized by each fisherman is not over $300; those who are expert 

 sometimes make double that amount, while many average less than $200 a year. 



A large proportion of the Gloucester fishermen are foreigners, including many nationalities, 

 British Provincials largely predominating, though there are many Swedes and Portuguese, and some 

 Danes, Frenchmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, and Englishmen. As a class they cannot be called 

 economical, though many are prudent and save enough in a few years to buy part or the whole of a 

 vessel. It is very gratifying to note that the number of vessels owned by the fishermen themselves 

 is rapidly increasing, and that the deposits of money by fishermen in the savings bank is far in 

 excess of what it was a few years ago. A good many fishermen, especially masters of vessels, own 

 the houses in which they live. A great deal is said about the disorderly conduct of fisheimen while 

 ashore. The city marshal of Gloucester, in a recent report on the public order of the place, says: 



"In this regard this city will not suffer by comparison with any other of equal size in the com- 

 monwealth. It is certainly a fact of which our citizens may well feel proud, that no city or large 

 town in the State has a better criminal record than the city of Gloucester. In no one of them has 

 there been so few crimes committed, and none where the class of crime has been of a lighter char- 

 acter. When it is considered that during much of the year numbers of our population consist of 

 persons who have no permanent interests here, and come from all quarters of the world, it must 

 be admitted that this is saying much; and no fact could be stated to prove more clearly the gen- 

 eral regard of our people for public order, good morals, and law." 



The vessels are insured on a mutual plan in an organization styled the Gloucester Mutual 

 Fishing Insurance Company. At the close of each fishing year the shareholders in the company 

 are called together to reorganize and adjust the losses of the year just past. Each vessel owner 

 holds shares enough to cover the value of his vessel or fleet, a regular rate of premium being charged 

 for insurance, depending somewhat on the kind of fishery in which a vessel is engaged and the 

 season of the year. Out of the gross premiums the losses are paid, and if the premiums be not 

 sufficient to pay these losses an assessment is made on each shareholder. 



THE TRADE IN FISH. The fishing business on shore, at Gloucester, is divided into several 

 branches, including the trade in fresh fish, dry and pickled fish, smoked fish, boneless fish, oil and 

 guano, sounds, and fish glue. The fisheries are divided into the shore boat fishery and various 

 vessel-fisheries for the capture of mackerel, haddock, and fresh halibut, the Grand Bank. Western 



