BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 235 



or, in the case of the ohler vessels, according to the old system, only 

 one-fifth, after certain stock charges have been deducted for bait, 

 ice, wharfage, and towage. The remaining three-fourths or four-fifths 

 of the net stock is divided equally among the crew, the owner i^aying 

 the skipper's commission or percentage from the vessel's quarter. The 

 average share of the Gloucester crews for the winter of 1880-'81 was 

 about $290. The most successful shared $500 to $550. The largest 

 stock ever made in one day's fishing in the winter shore fishery up to 1880 

 was that of the "Eastern Queen," of Gloucester, which carried to the 

 Boston market, in 1873, 25,000 pounds of haddock, and stocked $1,100. 

 This vessel also made the largest stock of that season, realizing in five 

 months $10,250 clear of all expenses, the crew sharing $550 each. The 

 crew of the schooner "David J. Adams," in March, 1881, shared $107 

 each in a ten days' trip in the haddock fishery 



THE HADDOCK FISHERY FIFTY YEARS AGO. 



A writer in the Fishermen's Memorial and Eecord Book thus de- 

 scribes the haddock fishery in the early part of the present century : 



"The fitting-out of the fleet for the haddock fishery commenced about 

 the first of April. The first move was to run the boats on the beach, or 

 landing as it was then called, and have them calked and graved. The 

 latter process consisted in applying a coat of pitch to the bottom and 

 burning it down with a tar-barrel, which gave a smooth and glossy 

 surface. Painted bottoms in those days were very rare. 



The time occnpied in making a haddock trip was from two days to a 

 week, the fish being mostly taken on Old Man's Pasture, Heart's Ground, 

 and Inner Bank, about twelve miles oft" of Eastern Point. The fish were 

 taken to Charlestown for a market, and purchased by the hawkers — 

 among whom were Johnny Harriden, Joe Smith, Isaac Eich, and others, 

 who took them over to Boston in hand-carts and retailed them at a 

 good profit. The codfish were generally salted. The smallest were 

 cured for the Bilboa market, and the largest were made into dun fish, 

 as they were called, for home consumption. They were kept on the 

 flakes several weeks, and thoroughly dried until they became of a red- 

 dish color, and were highly esteemed as an article of food. The baking 

 season commenced in July, and the pollock fishery was prosecuted from 

 September to the middle of November. Each boat carried three men — 

 skipper, forward hand, and cook, who went at the halves, as it was 

 called, the crew receiving one-half the gross stock, and the owners the 

 balance." * 



* Fishermen's Memorial and Record Book, Gloucester, 1873, p. 73. 



