68 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



among them ; most of them are such as have fled from other 

 places to avoid justice. Some here are of the opinion that 

 as many men may share a woman as they do a boat, and 

 some have done so. ' ' * 



A boat's crew usually consisted of four men, the master 

 and two fishermen being on the boat, the fourth man, who 

 stayed on the shore, cured the fish very much as fish are 

 cured now, and did the cooking for the other members 

 of the crew. Often the crew shared 8 or 9 to a man in 

 a single voyage. The money, however easy or difficult it 

 was in coming, was easily spent. Upon the arrival of 

 a trading vessel laden with spirituous liquors, termed in that 

 day a ' * walking tavern, ' ' the fishermen forsook their call- 

 ing for a drunken carousal which often lasted several days. 

 These are severe judgments passed by contemporary writers 

 upon the moral condition of the fishermen of the day. It 

 may be a safer judgment to regard the instances of gross 

 laxity in moral conduct as the exception rather than the 

 rule among the people of Maine an exception that would 

 be brought more sharply into view and remain longer in 

 the memory in places where life was rough, hard and 

 monotonous, with few if any relaxations in the struggle 

 with elemental conditions. 



In the boat fishing it was the prevailing custom for the 

 fishermen to have one-half the catch. 2 In the winter sea- 

 son the boats went out in the morning to return at night, 

 in the spring and summer they remained out until a load 

 of fish was secured. The vessels used to make three trips 

 to the banks in a season. The first fare of the spring 

 produced the best quality of fish, they being large and 

 thick. This kind was first salted and then dried; then 

 it was kept alternately above and under ground until it 

 became so mellow that it was called "dumb fish." When 



1 Sabine, p. 107. 



2 Bourne, History of Wells and Kennebunk, p. 182. 



