186 



relates, under date of 1639, that there "was such a store of exceeding 

 large and fat mackerel upon our coasts this season, as was a great 

 benefit to all our phmtations," and that "one boat, with three men, 

 would take in a week ten hogsheads, which were sold at Connecticut 

 for ^3 12s. the hogshead." And it seems, from equally authentic 

 sources, that similar "stores" relieved the "plantations," occasionally, 

 at subsequent periods. In ^Nlaine, we have an account of a boat fishery 

 previous to the year 1G48. During tlie first half of the last century, 

 there are statements which show that a single vessel, fishing in Massa- 

 chusetts bay, often took eight hundred barrels in a season. In our own 

 day it has happened, on the sudden appearance of a scool, after a lapse 

 of years, that landsmen, women, and children, abandoned their accus- 

 tomed employments iofisli with pans, baskets, trays, pitchliirks, and the 

 like, and to prove how true it is that "necessity is the mother of inven- 

 tion." So, too, our fishermen, professionally equip])ed, even to the ile- 

 sittc and smi'-wcsfer, recall many an exciting scene between, and off, the 

 capes of Massachusetts, within the last twenty-five years. Thus, in 

 1S26, one hundred and fifty vessels and boats sailed from Gloucester 

 in one day, to hook, seine, or gaff, as circumstances should require, the 

 mass of fish that appeared near the harbor of that port; in 1831, one 

 hundj-ed thousand barrels were caught in fifteen days; in 1845, large 

 quantities were secured from wharves and rocks, in boats and on rafts, 

 in nets and cloths, by dipping and spearing; in 1847, "a store, exceed- 

 ing large and fat," were seen at sea, oft' Cape Cod, where boats could 

 not safel}^ follow, and, in the absence of a considerable part of the ves- 

 sels at the Bay Chaleurs, most were suffered to escape; in 1848, a fleet 

 of six hundred vessels and boats caught twelve thousand barrels in 

 one day, and fifty thousand barrels in twelve days; and in 1849, the 

 success of a smaller number of vessels, though much less, was yet 

 sufficient to retrieve the losses of other and more distant fisliing grounds 

 in the early part of that season. 



Serious depressions and ruinous losses in the mackerel fishery are 

 not uncommon. Success does not depend on skill and industry alone. 

 The best masters make "broken voyages," for the obvious reason that 

 the mackerel does not always appear in sufficient numbers in any of 

 the seas or bays of New England, or of British America. The fishery 

 fails one year at home, a second in the Bay of Chaleurs, and a third 

 everywhere. Seasons occur when those engaged in it lose the use and 

 outfits of their vessels, and the wages of their men. Sometimes the 

 quality of the fish is so poor, that an average "catch" affords no profit; 

 at others, the success of the British colonists gluts our markets. Mean- 

 time, the most enterprising masters and owners, discouraged by repeated 

 disappointments and losses, abandon the business, and suffer their 

 wharves and packing-houses to go to decay. 



In 1851 the fishermen were fortunate. The number of vessels em- 

 ployed in Massachusetts was eight hundred and fifty-three. The fishery 

 in our own waters, and in the colonial bays, was alilce successful ; and 

 these vessels, with eighty-seven others, owned in other States, but whose 

 fish were inspected in IMassachusetts, caught three hundred and twenty- 

 nine thousand barrels. 



