HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 127 



expense. A sail- vessel with a purse- gang of seven men requires three 

 tenders, with a man to sail each of them, making ten men in all as 

 sharesmen. The steamer dispenses with the three extra men, and in 

 consideration of the expense of coal and machinery takes their three 

 shares. This leaves the shares of the remaining men proportionally the 

 same as on a sailing-vessel. 



Sail -gangs and steamers have gear just alike to catch the fish. It is 

 not a sure thing to catch even when they see plenty of fish. A gang 

 last year set nineteen times and did not catch a fish. 



A writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser newspaper of August 5, 

 1875, states that persons chartering a steamer and sharing equally the 

 profits with its owner easily make from $1,000 to $3,000 in a season. 



Boardman and Atkins thus describe the methods in use about Booth- 

 bay, Me., in 1871: 



" Attached to each seine is a gang of fishermen and boats. The gangs 

 are described as ' sailing gangs' or ' steamer gangs,' according to the 

 means of locomotion. A sailing gang comprises two working boats and 

 a light row boat for the ' driver'; two carry-away boats, with a capacity 

 of about 250 barrels each ; one vessel and ten men in all. The working 

 boats work the seine, the carry-away boats carry to the factory, and on 

 the vessel the crew are fed and lodged. In a steamer gang, the vessel 

 and the carry-away boats are replaced by a screw-steamer of 35 to 60 

 tons (new measurement), and the number of men is reduced to nine. 

 These steamers cost from $10,000 to $16,000 each, and will carry 800 

 barrels of fish. They were introduced on the coast of Maine three years 

 ago. The advantage of the steamer over the sailing gang is obvious. 

 It is not dependent on the wind, and can proceed without loss of time to 

 the place where the fish are playing. Of course they catch a great many 

 more fish, but they are so much more expensive that they do not appear 

 to be much more profitable. The seine gangs are always attached to the 

 oil-factories, and the latter employ no other mode of fishing. Each fac- 

 tory runs several gangs. 



" Let us now follow the process of catching the fish as practiced by a 

 steamer gang. We will begin at the sailing of the gang from the harbor, 

 some cleiJi- morning in August. The engineer bestirs himself and has on 

 steam early enough to reach the fishing-ground about as early as the fish 

 can be seen. The fishing-ground is just where experience, and particu- 

 larly the experience of the last few days, dictates. Commonly it is out 

 to sea. As soon as it is light a sharp watch is kept on every side. 

 Wherever menhaden are seen, thither the steamer's head is pointed. 

 Sometimes it is close by home, and sometimes twenty or thirty miles 

 are passed over before there is a single school to be seen. On ap- 

 proaching a playing school they always try to get on the outside of it, 

 because the first movement of a school of pogies on finding themselves 

 entrapped is invariably a rush seaward. The driver, in his swift row- 

 boat, armed with a pile of stones, gets on the other side. Having 



