190 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



the fish were inspected in that port. The total amount of 

 mackerel previously inspected there was only 1,272 bar- 

 rels. In 1822, Gloucester schooners first went to George's 

 for mackerel, and, in 1830, the first vessel went to the Gulf 

 of Saint Lawrence for the same purpose. 



Mention is made of an immense school of mackerel which 

 suddenly appeared on Middle Bank in 1825. For three 

 days a fleet of about 200 vessels fished as continuously and 

 as fast as nature would allow ; at the end of the third day 

 the fish disappeared as mysteriously and as suddenly as 

 they had come. 1 A single jigger in that year, with a crew 

 of eight men, caught 1,300 barrels of mackerel. 2 The fish 

 were in abundance again the following year and so con- 

 tinued until 1831, which was a record-breaking season. 

 During this period of great plenty, the vessels of the fleet 

 averaged 800 barrels of fish a season. The boats at first 

 were from 40 to 50 tons burden. As the industry became 

 more assured in its permanency and was extended profitably 

 to George's Bank and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the ves- 

 sels increased in tonnage and the fleet in size. 



Gloucester surpassed Boston in the extent of its mackerel 

 fishery in 1840, and has held first rank ever since. Dur- 

 ing the period of the Reciprocity Treaty, 1854 to 1866, a 

 very prosperous business was developed by Gloucester fish- 

 ermen in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, as the provisions 

 of the treaty allowed American vessels to catch fish close 

 inshore. Several hundred vessels were annually fitted out 

 for the Bay, as the Gulf of Saint Lawrence is popularly 

 designated. Often the mackerel were shipped home from 

 there in Provincial vessels, thus allowing our fishing ves- 

 sels to take two or more fares a season. 3 The method of 

 catching was still by hook and line, or jigging, as it was 



1 Fisherman's Own Book, p. 197. 



2 Fisheries of Gloucester, p. 36. 



3 Goode, Sec. II, p. 152. 



