164 FISHEEMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



all. We could catch enough, but couldn't find a market for them. When bluefish came they 

 became very scarce. 



After we got through carrying plaice to Boston we went out in the bay and lished for cod and 

 liaise, and whatever we could catch, until about the 1st of September. We didn't like the sloop 

 very well. We got tired of pumping. Hearing of a sloop for sale at New London I went there 

 and bought the smack J. Sawyer, 33 tons. After buying that smack we brought her around in 

 the fall of 1844, and commenced fishing in her, and fished into 1845. The 1st of January we were 

 fishing for codfish. We had a crew of five men and carried four dories. The men were all on 

 shares. We fished for cod in our bay and on Mid Bay Ledge, 7 miles from here towards Sand- 

 wich, the first of the winter and into January, 1845. Subsequently the fish left the ledge and we 

 went out into deeper water off Eace Point. After fishing till spring, about the 1st of April we 

 went on to Nantucket Shoals with that smack for halibut, and I think we stocked about $400 

 while we were there. We went four trips, about five weeks altogether. 



Then we stopped at home to engage in the mackerel net fishery, and let our smack out to a 

 man who carried the fish to Boston market fresh and got a quarter for carrying them. We fished 

 in our boats in our bay, drifting for mackerel. 



After that mackerel season was over there was no prospect of doing much here and we came 

 to the conclusion to go down to the coast of Maine. We went to Monhegan, and the fishermen 

 there said we couldn't catch mackerel in nets; but we. went out in our dories and set our nets in 

 the night. We were gone from home four weeks and made $90 to a share. We thought that was 

 doing pretty well and went down again, but the next time there were so many sharks that we 

 couldn't do much and came home. The sharks would get in and tear the nets. 



After returning home in the fall we set nets in our bay. We set them in the night and would 

 draw them in the morning if the weather would permit. We fished in this way till about the 

 middle of November and then fitted out for winter fishing in Cape Cod Bay. We fished for 

 codfish in the bay and carried them alive to Boston market. In the spring of 1S46 we engaged in 

 halibut fishing as the year before. Then we let out our smack for a man to go in her to run 

 mackerel while we fished for them in the bay. Then, after we got through with that, which might 

 be about the 1st of July, we went to Monhegau as the year before. Several others went that 

 year. We didn't do much. Eeturning home we fished with mackerel nets (gill nets) here in the 

 fall, until about the middle of November, when we commenced winter fishing again. (See Storer, 

 Fishes of Massachusetts, pp. 58-174). 



During the winter we had carried to Boston 3,999 cod, which weighed 51,263 pounds, and we 

 stocked $734.18. In the spring we caught 2,205 cod and stocked $240.43. 



We went cod fishing in the winter until May 8, IS 17. Then we went dragging for mackerel. 

 This year we concluded not to go to Monhegan, so two of us took the smack and took two loads of 

 lobsters to New York. We didn't do much with them. They died, for we didn't know how to 

 take care of them very well. After returning, about the 1st of August, from New York, we com- 

 menced fishing for hake and pollock and fished way into the autumn. We didn't save the hake 

 sounds then. 



After that fishing was over we set mackerel nets until late in December and then commenced 

 winter fishing again. 



Iu the spring we went halibutiug, fishing down on Nantucket Shoals until May. Mackerel 

 catchers didn't do much, so that I didn't go at all to set mackerel nets. After the spring halibut 

 fishing was over I commenced to carry lobsters to Boston. After the Boston trade fell off we then 

 made five trips to New York with lobsters. We brought home fruit to sell. We bought the lobsters 



