22 BULIvETIN 127, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



sea fisheries which are carried on at long distances from the land. 

 Attempts have been made to introduce steamers into the winter had- 

 dock and the summer mackerel fisheries, but the results obtained were 

 not satisfactory, and the regular employment of such vessels in those 

 or kindred branches of the fisheries has apparently been indefinitely 

 postponed. 



Screw steamers were introduced for the capture of menhaden about 

 1871. In a description by Boardman and Atkins of the methods em- 

 ployed in the menhaden fishery about Boothbay, Me., in 1874, it is 

 said that " they [steamers] were introduced on the coast of Maine 

 three years ago." Steamers were found remarkably well adapted for 

 this fishery, where quick dispatch is a necessity, and the fish are taken 

 from the great purse seines and thrown in bulk in the vessel's hold, 

 where they lie until they are transferred to the factory — on the ar- 

 rival of the steamer in port — to be converted into fertilizers and oil. 

 In the year of 1888 there were 55 steamers employed in the menhaden 

 fisheries, their aggregate tonnage amounting to 3,681.61 tons. The 

 smallest of the fleet, and the first built for this fishery, the Seven 

 Brothers^ is 27.32 tons, while the largest, the George W. Humphries 

 a " double-gang steamer," is 214.55 tons, with 250 horsepower.. 



Screw steamers are used to some extent in the fisheries of the Great 

 Lakes. Some of these are employed chiefly in carrying to market 

 the product of the traps and pounds, and are generally called " pound 

 steamers." The most of them, however, fish with long strings of gill 

 nets and are called " gill-net steamers." There are certain local dif- 

 ferences in these vessels, but generally speaking they resemble an 

 ordinary steam tug, being, however, somewhat wider and rather flat- 

 ter on the floor. They range in size from 10 to about 45 tons. 



The first attempt to use steam power for oyster dredging of which 

 we have any knowledge was made at Norwalk, Conn., when a boiler 

 and engine were put on board the sloop. Early Bird, in 1874 for the 

 purpose only of turning the drums with which the dredge lines were 

 hauled. Later this A-essel was further improved by the addition of 

 a propeller, and this was found to add so materially to her effective- 

 ness that since that time screw steamers have been built expressly 

 for this work. They are generally of small size, ranging from 20 

 to 63 tons, from 50 to 83 feet in length, with a beam of 12 to 20 feet. 



In 1880 there were two small screw steamers of the tug pattern 

 employed in the clam fisheries of the United States, one of these, 

 however, spending a portion of her time in the " sardine " fisheries, 

 in which also, another small tug found employment. In the latter 

 industry the work of the steamers consisted chiefly in towing fishing 

 boats to and from the factories or packing establishments. 



In recent years small steamers have been employed exclusively 

 in the lobster fishery from New England. The first of these was the 



