Halibut-Fishing Schooner Being Tripped by a Heav\' Sea. Usually this caused loss of vessel and crew. 

 Drawn by H. Elliott under the direction of Capt. J. W. Collins. From G. Brown Goode, The fisheries and fishery 

 industries of the United States, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1884-87. 



construction of a new class of clipper fishermen. 

 These were much sharper and longer m the entrance 

 than the older sharpshooter, though with the same 

 long and easy run; and were very straight in the 

 buttocks. The new schooners, however, had less 

 depth and dead rise in the midsection, and had low 

 and hard bilges. The model resembled that of a 

 centerboard schooner having some dead rise but 

 with a deep keel outside the rabbet in lieu of a center- 

 board. It was quickly found that the new model 

 could carry a large sail area and was stiff, and that 

 the new schooners were very fast. By 1859 the build- 

 ing of the sharpshooter had almost ceased and all but 

 the "salt bankers" were being built as clippers. The 

 clipper model was to predominate for about 25 

 years. 



In the 1860's a few rather deep schooners were Isuilt 

 for the market fishery, but the trend in design was 

 generally toward the extreme clipper having a \-ery 

 shoal-draft body for a keel sailing vessel. The greatest 

 beam was now well abaft the midlength, the stern 

 was wide and the quarters heavy, the freeboard was 

 low, the entrance became very long and sharp with 

 much hollow at the forefoot, the run was also long 

 and hollow near the post, and the buttocks were 

 often extremely flat and straight. 



The Fast, Safe Fisherman 



However, it soon began to be apparent that some- 

 thing was wrong. The rise in prosperity in the New 

 England fisheries was general from the late 1840's on 

 and the banks had become so crowded with schooners 

 that when a severe gale swept the fishing grounds 

 heavy losses through collisions, caused by vessels 

 going adrift, could be expected. But it became 

 apparent that this condition was not the .sole cause 

 of the growing loss in lives and vessel property. 

 Vessels were knocked down and either capsized or 

 swamped, usually with the loss of all or most of the 

 crew, because the shoal-bodied schooners could not 

 recover from a sharp angle of heel. In a heavy gale, 

 furthermore, the popular shoal model could not carry 

 her heavy spars and large sails and the knowledge 

 that the vessels could capsize caused captains to heave 

 to and try to ride out the gale. Under such condi- 

 tions, the shoal draft caused the vessels to drift un- 

 manageably to leeward, a frequent cause of collision 

 on the banks. In the 1870's a number of disastrous 

 gales swept the New England coasts and the losses 

 were very heavy. 



About 1880 a former Gloucester fisherman, Captain 

 Joseph \V. Collins, joined the U.S. Fish Commission. 



169 



