54 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ices of llif fishermen of New England in time of war. At its conclusion, however, he falls into the 

 vein of thought alluded to, and brings instances from the pages of history to prove that the fisher- 

 man is of necessity a grateful man, a patriotic man, a benevolent man — his proof of this, perhaps, 

 being derived from an adventure of Mungo Park in one of the fishing villages of Africa — a sym- 

 pathetic man, a law-abiding man, and a man who is loyal to duty. He illustrates the latter point 

 by reference to the fishermen of Galilee, and incidentally eulogizes the fisherman's wife by quoting 

 instances where fish women in France, England, and Italy have performed charitable deeds, or, 

 standing upon the sea-shore as evening approaches, chant melodies and listen until they hear 

 answers from their husbands, who are guided by the sounds from their own villages. 



A study of the fishermen of North America forces one to the conclusion that the fishermen are 

 in all respects very similar to their neighbors on shore in the region in which they were born and 

 educated. The crews of the cod and mackerel schooners of Massachusetts and Maine, when once 

 they set their feet upon the shore, cannot be distinguished from their brothers and cousins who are 

 clerks in the shops and mechanics in their native villages. The ignorant and lawless natives of 

 certain parts of the British Provinces may be precisely matched among the agriculturists of the 

 same district, while the enterprising and skillful Provincials, who are in command of a large numbei 

 of vessels in the American fleet, are very little different from the better class of farmers and shop 

 keepers of their old homes. The negroes, by whose strength the shad fisheries of the Southern 

 rivers are carried on, are not to be distinguished from other negroes of the same district; in fact, 

 except during the limited season of the fisheries, they are engaged in the same pursuits as their 

 neighbors. The Portuguese fishermen retain the prejudices and habits of their native Azores. 

 The Mediterranean fishermen, of whom so many are to be found on our Southern and Western 

 coasts, might be transplanted with their boats to the coasts of Calabria, Greece, or the Balearic 

 Islands, and would there be at home. The Irishmen of Boston, with their sloop-cutters and primi- 

 tive fishing-tackle, are west-coast Irishmen still. All retain the peculiar mental characteristics of 

 the districts in which they were trained, though all are more or less broadened and developed by 

 the greater freedom which they find in the United States. A large percentage, probably more 

 than a half, of the number of those enumerated in this report as fishermen are actually engaged 

 in the fisheries only a few months in the year, and at other times are occupied in farming or any 

 other pursuits on shore. 



We refer here not to the crews of the fishing vessels belonging in the larger ports, but to 

 many of the fishermen on the coast of Maine, and to almost all of those from Cape Cod southward, 

 except the Connecticut fishermen, who supply the markets of New York and Havana, a few men 

 engaged in the market fisheries of the large Southern States, the oyster fishermen of the Chesa- 

 peake, and the sponge and oyster fishermen of the Gulf of Mexico, and the men who fish habitually 

 for the San Francisco market. 



The fishermen of New England are of special importance and interest, since they correspond 

 more closely to the professional fishermen of Northern Europe and constitute the class usually 

 thought of when the fishermen of the United States are spoken of. For them especially treaties 

 are made, tariffs are imposed, and from their ranks the merchant marine is recruited. 



FisnEKMEN AS capitalists and MERCHANTS. — The ease with which the New England fisher- 

 man, accustomed to the constant sea-faring life, adapts himself to changing circumstances, may be 

 judged from the fact that many so often abandon fishing and enter successfully upon other pur- 

 suits. Most of the fishery capitalists of Gloucester and other fishing ports are men who have been 

 trained as fishermen. This is also the ease with the titters of the whaling fleet in Southern New 

 England, in many ports these men carry on, in connection with their fishing business, a general 



