158 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Under the head of stock charges are included the following items : 



Bait and ice $234 15 



Customs fees 2 42 



236 57 

 The general charges include : 



Water and extra provisions. $16 00 



Nippers 7 00 



Sawing wood 150 



Medicine 3 00 



Milk .. 2 00 



29 50 



7. HISTORY OF TRAWLING. 



STATEMENT OF CAPT. N. E. ATWOOD. It is said that in early days a treaty between England 

 and France forbade French vessels from anchoring on the Grand Bank, and in those days trawling 

 was, of course, an impossibility. The American vessels fishing on the Banks were in constant 

 terror of the great French ships as they drifted hither and thither over the fishing grounds. At 

 the time of Captain Atwood's first visit to the Grand Bank they were in the habit of setting 

 trawls from their shallops as at the present day. As early as 1843 Captain Atwood set trawls for 

 halibut in Massachusetts Bay. Before that he had been in the habit of putting two or three hooks 

 on the rode-line of his dory, close to his anchor, and would occasionally catch a fish or two when 

 he pulled in the anchor. As early as 1843 he was accustomed to set a regular trawl-line CO fathoms 

 long, with snoods 4 or 5 feet in length, placed 4 or 5 fathoms apart. About 1845 the schooner 

 Oneco, Charles Aspley, a Welshman, master, went to the Grand Bank fitted out for trawling like 

 the French vessels. She made only about 5,000 fish, 150 quintals. When he had made a miss it 

 stilled the Provincetown fishermen on the subject of trawling. So they said nothing more about 

 this kind of fishing. 



About 1851 or 1852 an old Irishman down at Swampscott bought an old dory and went to 

 work rigging a trawl as he had been accustomed to do in the old country. The Swampscott fish- 

 ermen laughed at him and the idea that he could catch any fish with his clumsy trawl ; but when 

 he went out they soon changed their tune, for he could catch two fish to their one. They then 

 fitted out trawls for themselves and went fishing with them, and thought it was nice. They soon 

 encountered another difficulty, however, for an entirely new class of fishermen, mostly Irish, were 

 called in, and their monopoly of the Boston market was destroyed. A great many Irishmen began 

 trawling, and they soon began to build little vessels, such as they had on their own coast. The 

 first one they got was a little boat called the Moby Dick, and they made money like shells. These 

 Irish boats rapidly increased in number, and they had the St. Patrick and the St. Mary, and the 

 Daniel O'Conuell and the Maid of Erin ; and in 1857 there were seventy-five Irish boats tending 

 Bostou market. The Swampscott fishermen began to be alarmed, and petitioned the legislature 

 for laws forbidding the use of trawl-lines; but they had leave to withdraw their petition. 



In 1858 another petition was sent in by the Swampscott people, begging that trawling should 

 be forbidden within three miles of the shore. They thought if this could be passed the small fish- 

 ermen would be driven out of the business. Their petition was again refused. Captain Atwood's 

 account of this occasion is interesting as a matter of history, and particularly so, as it fixes the 

 time at which trawling became common at Provincetown. In 1856 the captain was at home 

 engaged in manufacturing cod-liver oil, and his brother, Capt. John Atwood, with three others, 

 entered into partnership for the purpose of buying the winter shore catch of fish, to send them to 

 Boston market. Captain Atwood consented to become the fifth partner and to be on duty at Cen- 

 tral Wharf. That fall he was elected to the State legislature, and was obliged to furnish a substi- 



