404 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



Capt. Matthew Turner seems to have been the pioneer in the dis- 

 covery of the commercial possibilities of the great cod banks of the 

 Pacific Ocean. W. A. Wilcox, late field agent of the now United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries, received from the late Captain Turner 

 the following facts in connection with his discovery of various banks 

 and his exploitation of same: 12 



In 1857 Capt. Matthew Turner, master of the brig Timandra, 120 tons, sailed 

 from San Francisco with an assorted cargo for Nicolaevsk on the Amur River. 

 He was detained, however, for three weeks at Castor Bay, at the head of 

 the Gulf of Tartary, because the Amur River was full of ice when he 

 reached the Asiatic coast. While the vessel lay there waiting, anchored in 3 

 fathoms of water, the crew began fishing over the rail with hand lines simply 

 as a pastime. They were surprised to find plenty of cod, averaging about 2 

 feet in length. Captain Turner had not previously seen codfish, but some of his 

 crew were familiar with the species, and he, knowing their market value at 

 San Francisco, appreciated the importance of the discovery and became inter- 

 ested in the fishing. Two years later Captain Turner made another trip to the 

 Amur River. Reaching Sakhalin Island, off the Gulf of Tartary, he began 

 fishing for cod and found them very abundant. Only enough were taken for 

 ship's use, however, for he was not provided with the means to cure more. 



In 1863 Captain Turner once more sailed in the Timandra to Amur River. 

 But this time he went prepared to catch and cure some cod on his return 

 voyage. Besides fishing gear he carried 25 tons of salt. Returning he stopped 

 to fish at the Gulf of Tartary. Cod were plentiful at first, and 10 tons were 

 taken in a few days and salted in kench. But suddenly the fish disappeared 

 and none could be caught. Then the brig ran down the coast to southern 

 Kamchatka, where fish were found in abundance, and excellent success was 

 met with on the first day. The vessel lay near the rocky coast, and on the 

 second day, during the prevalence of a dense fog, both anchors were lost. This 

 mishap compelled Captain Turner to abandon fishing and to leave the coast; 

 he reluctantly sailed for home. His fish sold at San Francisco for 15 cents 

 per pound, and his voyage would have been notably profitable if the loss of 

 anchors had not interefered with obtaining a full fare. This was the first 

 occasion that salt cod were landed on the west coast from Pacific fishing 

 grounds. 



In 1864 Captain Turner sailed in his brig on a cod-fishing voyage. Thus the 

 Timandra was the first vessel to engage in this industry from Pacific ports. 

 On the same grounds visited the previous year a fare of 100 tons of codfish was 

 obtained and the voyage was remunerative. The same year the schooner 

 Alert made a trip to Bristol Bay, Alaska, in pursuit of cod. Her voyage proved 

 a failure, for she took only 9 tons of fish. 



Captain Turner states that since he made his voyages to the Gulf of Tartary, 

 as related above, no American vessels have gone there to fish for cod. His 

 success, however, had a very decided effect upon the cod-fishing business in 

 the North Pacific, and in 1S65 six vessels sailed from San Francisco to the 

 Okhotsk Sea in pursuit of cod. These were the first American vessels to visit 

 that region on cod-fishing trips, and their sailing evidenced a resolution to 

 begin the business upon a broad commercial basis. 



But Captain Turner, who seems to have possessed the spirit and enterprise of 

 a pioneer or discoverer, determined to look for cod-fishing grounds nearer home. 

 Not disheartened by the ill success of the Alert in 1863, he sailed for Alaska 

 on the schooner Porpoise, of 45 tons, March 27, 1865, and arrived at the Shu- 

 magin Islands May 1. He began fishing the same day. Cod were abundant 

 and close inshore. As a result, he returned to San Francisco on July 7 with a 

 fare of 30 tons of fish — something less than a full cargo, which might easily 

 have been secured, only for the desire to market the catch in advance of the 

 arrival home of the vessels that had sailed to the fishing grounds on the Asiatic 

 side of the Pacific. This was the first fare of cod from the Shumagin Islands, 

 a locality since famous in the annals of the Pacific codfishery. 



The cod-fishing fleet of 1864 was composed wholly of rather small-sized 

 schooners, most of which were orginally built in New England for the Atlantic 



12 Report on the fisheries of the Pacific coast of the United States, by J. W. Collins. 

 Report of United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1888, pp. 92, 93. 

 Washington, 1892. 



