SAILOR FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 51 



generations hereditary in their families. The fishermen of these ports who are not foreigners, are, 

 for the most part, drawn from the coast of Maine and the smaller ports of Cape Cod and Southern 

 .Massachusetts, where the old customs are still somewhat prevalent. The fact that the sous of 

 well-to-do fishermen do not follow in the footsteps of their fathers is in part due to the fact that the 

 fisheries of the United States are now much less profitable than they formerly were, the existing 

 treaty with Great Britain having recently given an unfair advantage to the fisheries of British 

 North American Provinces. 



The youngster sailing upon a fishing vessel — whether he be ten or sixteen years of age — enters 

 on a course of practical trainiug under the direction of the skipper and his shipmates. If intelli- 

 gent, ambitious, and industrious, he, in two or three years, thoroughly understands how to fish 

 and how to manage a schooner, and what is more, he has learned to perform such duties as are 

 within the limits of his strength by pure force of habit. He has acquired many of those points of 

 skill which become more and more a second nature with him as he grows older, being able to lay 

 his hand on any rope in the dark, to steer a vessel at night by the feeling of the wind on his face, 

 to ease a vessel in a seaway by an involuntary movement of the hand as it rests upon the helm, 

 to safely enter various harbors, either at night or day, and to know by instinct just what sails to 

 change with varying circumstances. He has learned to distinguish between the different species 

 of fish that he habitually sees, by peculiarities of their motion as they swim around the vessel at 

 night, leaving shining tracks of fire behind them in the water, and to determine the presence of fish 

 by the movements of the vessels in the offing, by the action of flocks of birds, or by the different 

 sounds which some species of fish make as they flip with their fins at the surface. He knows how 

 to dress mackerel, cod, or halibut, in darkness, guided by the sense of feeling. These feats of skill, 

 which are soon learned by the observant and easily impressed mind of the younger boy, require a 

 much longer time for acquisition by a boy of fifteen or sixteen, whose powers of observation, as 

 well as his interest in such matters, have doubtless been dulled by his training on shore, however 

 much his reflective powers may have been improved. An experienced skipper states from his 

 own knowledge that boys who have gone with him at the age of fourteen or sixteen cannot usually 

 be trusted to take their place at the helm or on the watch until they are eighteen or nineteen, but 

 that those boys who went at the age of ten years can generally perform the duties of the watch 

 when fifteen, and in some cases as young as thirteen. Many boys, trained in the old manner, have 

 become skippers of vessels when from seventeen to nineteen years of age. Some of the most suc- 

 cessful "fitters" at Gloucester had command while still in their teens. 



These men have generally acquired a fair education by their own efforts, and in strength of 

 character, ability, and general intelligence they are to-day by far the best men in the fishing fleet. 

 These are the men who have been trained from early boyhood to face danger and hardship, and to 

 meet and overcome emergencies, and exhibit traits of quickness, bravery, and presence of mind. 

 It may, indeed, be stated as a fact that a fisherman never attains to the highest excellence in his 

 profession who has not been accustomed to a sea-faring life from early boyhood. 



Training in navigation. — A boy is trained in navigation precisely as in the management of 

 the vessel and in the methods of the fisheries. He first learns to steer, perhaps by a landmark, 

 then he learns the compass, and, later, how to shape the course or to measure distance on a chart, by 

 observing the actions of the skipper. In this way he also learns to take the bearings of the land 

 and to estimate its distance. The skipper often gives instruction to those of his crew who desire 

 it in taking observations and calculating latitude and longitude. In former days it was an accom- 

 plishment which every ambitions boy was anxious to learn to be able to estimate the velocity of 



