122 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



been a gradual increase from year to year in the size of the seine-boats, 

 keeping pace with a corresponding increase in the size of the seines. 



In 1857 all boats were 28 feet in length. In 1872 the length had in- 

 creased to 30 feet, and in the summer and fall of the same year an ad- 

 ditional foot was added to the length. In 1873 almost all boats which 

 were built had a length of 31 feet; a few of 32 and 33. In 1874 almost all 

 were 33 feet, as they were during 1875 and 1876, although some were 

 made 35 and 36 feet. In 1877, 34 feet is the most popular length, though 

 one or two 38-foot boats have been built. Seven, eight, or nine oars, 

 usually 13 or 14 feet in length, are used in these boats, besides a 

 steering-oar of 16 or 17 feet. 



These boats last,'with ordinary usage, six or seven years. At the close 

 of the fishing season they are always taken ashore and laid up for the 

 winter, in a shed or under trees, and are completely refitted at the be- 

 ginning of another season. 



The seine-boats, carried by the " menhaden catchers" south of Cape 

 Cod and by all the steamers, are shaped like ships' yawls, square-sterned, 

 smooth-bottomed, and batten-seamed, 22 to 26 feet long and 6J feet 

 beam ; they are built at New Bedford, New London, Greenport, and 

 at Mystic Kiver, and cost about $125 each, the finest $185. The New 

 Bedford boats are preferred by many fishermen. 



When boats of this model are used every gang has two, each carrying 

 three men and half of the seine; this arrangement leaves one of the crew 

 upon the sloop and two in the lighter. On the coast of Maine, a man 

 is usually sent out in a dory to drive the fish. 



The Cape Ann fishermen stow their seines in one boat, and in shooting 

 the seine one end of it is carried in a dory. 



The Cape Ann dory is 15 feet long on the bottom, 19 on top, 5 feet 

 2 inches beam amidships, 21.5 inches deep, 36 inches high at the stem, 

 34 inches at the stern, 2 feet 10 inches wide at bottom of stern. These 

 dories are built with considerable difference in their "sheer," those used 

 on the shore having a straighter bottom than those used in the Bank 

 fisheries. The boats used on the seine fisheries are generally of an inter- 

 mediate form. 



Messrs. Higgins & Gifford manufacture an improved pattern of dory 

 (patented January 2, 1877), for which they claim the same advantages 

 already mentioned under the description of the seine-boat. They are 

 built of pine, with oak -timber gunwales, stem and stern. There are 

 four boards upon each side fastened in battened set-work. The gun- 

 wales are whole instead of being bent and capped. They have no pro- 

 jecting stem-head, in this respect also differing from the old form.* 



The sailing-vessels and steamers. 



170. Small schooners and sloops were used in the early stage of the 

 business, these succeeded by larger, and these to a great extent by 



* The Cape Ann dory is illustrated in Plate XVI, fig. 1. 



