166 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



We sailed about the middle of July, 1851. We went down tbe coast of Maine and tried to get 

 some menhaden but didn't catch much. After arming in the gulf we went to the Magdalen 

 Islands to fish and fished there until about the middle of September, when we went to Prince Ed- 

 ward Island. We took a heavy squall from the northeast. There were six vessels in company 

 with us. We could see where the harbor went in, and I had a man aboard who had fished there 

 before and who said he was just as well acquainted there as with Proviucetown Harbor. One of 

 these other schooners was half a mile ahead and one was behind. Then it got dark and I lost 

 sight of these vessels. I saw a tremendous breaker ahead and I put Nat, my little boy, below and 

 hauled to the north and luffed, and I hadn't run but a minute when I saw a sea coming from the 

 other quarter. When that sea came along midships it broke right over us. The next sea that 

 struck us didn't strike us so hard. She came working over till she came to the main beach of the 

 island. She was up so high that the tide didn't wet her keel. I stripped her and sold her there. 

 She brought most as much as she was worth. I was there a week. I went aboard another Province- 

 town vessel that was coming home and got off at Saint Peter's that night, and there came oh what 

 was known as the Yankee gale. I think it was the 4th of October, 1851. We hauled off that 

 night and the next morning it was blowing a gale of wind. We sailed on till nearly night head- 

 ing up northwest, and I saw a big breaker ahead. A sea struck us and took off our jib and flying 

 jib and the boat off the stern. We were carried right up on the north part of Saint Peter's. I had 

 twenty barrels of my mackerel aboard, which I saved. Then I finally came home in another ves- 

 sel. I made pretty well that voyage. She was insured for $G00, and I got my mackerel out and 

 shipped them for home. We made $40 to a share on our mackerel, and did tiptop. 



My brother was building a vessel at Northport, L. I., called the Golden Eagle, 80 tons. In the 

 spring of 1852 I went fishing for halibut on Nantucket Shoals and took them to New York. Then 

 we came here for mackerel fishing and this vessel carried them to Boston. Then we went to 

 George's Bank for halibut in June, and carried our halibut to New York. We went two trips. 

 After the two trips we fitted for mackereling — salt mackereling. We went offcast of Cape Ann, 

 and subsequently in the bay, and fished until the 1st of October, and then came home, and my 

 brother took the vessel and went packeting to Boston and I set mackerel nets. In those winters I 

 made cod-liver oil, but that didu't stop me from dory fishing. 



When we returned from the George's in August, 1852, we stopped at Proviucetown and took 

 in 2,000 lobsters. There were three sharesmen and we each took our wives and children to New 

 York to the World's Fair. There were eleven of us, and we stopped a week in New York. 



In 1S53 I was in the Golden Eagle on Nantucket Shoals, and afterwards went to George's 

 Bank until the 1st of September, as the year before. In autumn I fished with gill-nets in our 

 bay. I bought 200 quintals of hake and pollock. 



fn 1854 John, my brother, left, and I took charge of the schooner and fished for cod and hali- 

 but on Nantucket Shoals and George's Bank as the year before, and afterwards fished for mackerel 

 from the shore. Then my brother-in-law took her and went mackereling. 



In 1S55, in the spring, I commenced dory fishing for cod, and preparing for catching mackerel 

 with nets. I built a new boat, called the Ichthyologist, which cost $240, for a drag boat to drift 

 with nets in the bay. My son Nat was going with me and seemed to think that there was small 

 chance for me to be high boat, until I undertook to explain to him why I thought I should be. I 

 said to him, "I know what the mackerel conic lure for. They come hen 1 to deposit their spawn. 

 They spawn in the head of the bay, in 7, 8, or 10 fathoms of water. If you go up to the spawning 

 grounds you will find them more numerous.'* Accordingly, we got our boat ready and on the 20th 

 day of May we left and went up the bay into about 10 fathoms of water. There we put over our 



