144 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Their return, if laden, is the signal for the dressing-crew, who are left on board, to begin a series 

 of operations which, when completed, leave the fish in the form in which the consumer buys them. 

 From the dressing-table the fish are thrown down the hatchway to the salter, who commences the 

 process of curing by salting and placing them in layers in the bottom of the vessel. If the master 

 intends to remain on the coast until his fish are ready for market, they are commonly taken on 

 shore as soon as caught, and there dressed, salted, and dried before being conveyed to the vessel. 

 If, on the contrary, it is his intention to dry them at home, as is now the common practice, the 

 salte^s duty is the last that is performed aboard. The bait used in the Labrador fishery is a small 

 fish called capelan. This small but useful fish seldom remains on the fishing ground for more than 

 six weeks in a season ; a time which is long enough for securing a full supply, and which an 

 experienced and energetic master does not often allow to pass away without one. The average 

 produce of this fishery may be estimated at about 10 quintals to every ton of the vessels employed 

 in it, though the best masters are dissatisfied when they fail to catch a fourth or fifth more."* 



Concerning the Labrador cod fishery from Newburyport, Mr. John G. Plummer writes us as 

 follows: "Capt. Charles Sandborn says that he went first in 1833, and there were then about 

 eighteen or twenty large vessels. One was a ship of 360 tons. They went down to Salmon Eiver ? 

 anchored in the river, and went down along the shore in boats and caught most of the cod with 

 nets or seines. They used those seines that were knit flat and gathered at the sides, so as to have 

 them bag some, and when they could not take all the fish in the boats they used to buoy up the 

 lead-line and leave the fish in the nets until they returned for them. Sometimes they used large 

 bags made of nets, which they would fill with fish and anchor them until the boats could return 

 for them. The vessels carried fine-mesh nets in which to catch capelan for bait. 



" The voyage usually lasted about three months. The fish were dried at home and the cost 

 of drying, one-twelfth, was paid in shares. They were packed in drums and shipped to the West 

 Indies, to Bilboa, Spain, and up the Straits. 



" The vessels employed were not very high cost, and were fitted at low rates. They had a 

 codfish bounty from the Government, and so made good voyages, but after a while the Government 

 cut off the bounty, and the cost of vessels and expense of fitting, including wages, increased so 

 that there was no money in it. One after another the vessels were withdrawn, until November, 

 1881, not one is left. Last year there was one vessel, and this year none. 



" The cod that were dried here iu Newburyport and packed in drums brought the best price 

 in the West Indies of any in the world. They were not very salt and were thoroughly dry, so as 

 to stand the heat. 



" Fishermen all say that even now, with good large vessels, and with little assistance from 

 the Government, they could compete with the French and English fishermen and make it pay ; 

 but where the French get a good bounty from the Government and we get none, and the cost of 

 fitting is higher than in France, it is impossible to make the fishing pay. These small Labrador 

 fish have to be shipped to the same market as the English and French fish. 



" Our vessels carried mostly men and boys and taught them to be sailors. Some of these were 

 in our Navy during the war, and one or two in the Kearsarge when she sunk the Alabama; about 

 twenty of them, I think, were in the Navy. 



" We used to have great times here when the vessels came in from Labrador. All the men 

 and boys we could scare up were employed in washing, hauling, drying, and packing the fish, and 

 shipping them to market. The oil was shipped mostly to Philadelphia, and the vessels usually 

 brought back coal, corn, sugar, and molasses. 



* American Fisheries, pp. 170, 171. 



