The Uniled Sliilcs Fish t omiiiissioii 

 the distribution of the tiletish grounds 



iliooiier, "(iriiniims, is;);», set ling out from Woods Hole to inv(v-;tigate 



Tilefishing in Fifty Fathoms 



By GEORGE H. SHERWOOD 



6 4 IV T OW I want you to drop every- 

 I ^ thing, pack your duds and re- 

 port on the ' Grampus ' at once. 

 She will sail in half an hour." There 

 was no appeal from this command of 

 the director and within the allotted 

 time I was on board the United States 

 Fish Commission schooner "Grampus," 

 and my first experience on deep water 

 had begun. 



It was in the latter part of August, 

 1899, and the "Grampus," in command 

 of Captain Hahn, was about to leave the 

 government station at Woods Hole, 

 Massachusetts, to continue the investi- 

 gation of the distribution of the tilefish 

 which had been rediscovered along the 

 continental shelf, south of New England. 



The original discovery of this fish, as 

 far at least as any records go, occurred 

 in ]May, 1879, when Captain Kirby of 

 Gloucester, while fishing for cod and 



hake south of Nantucket, brought up in 

 one catch about two thousand pounds 

 of a strange fish, most of which were 

 promptly thrown overboard. A few, 

 however, were kept and cooked, and 

 proved so palatable that Captain Kirby 

 landed in Gloucester with about four 

 hundred pounds of the dressed fish and 

 sent a specimen to the United States 

 National Museum. It was found to be 

 a new genus and species, was given the 

 name Lopholatilus chamoeleonticeps (or 

 the crested tilus with chamteleon-like 

 head), and as it was a large beautifully 

 colored fish of excellent food qualities, 

 and existed in large numbers not far 

 from the coast, steps were immediately 

 taken to locate the fishing grounds and 

 determine the feasibility of establishing 

 a fishery. 



From time to time during 1880 and 

 1881, trawls were set and fish caught, 



433' 



