[99 J HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 189 



salters sometimes leave "tliumib-marks" where their thumbs touch the 

 fish during the process of salting, preventing the access of the salt. 

 These do not keep well. 



It was customary on the "hookers" to let the mackerel remain on 

 deck for several days after being salted, the length of time varying to 

 a considerable extent, as it depended very much on the amount of fish 

 taken. When the mackerel were well struck, or after they had been 

 salted from two to five or six days, the barrels were "topped up" with 

 fish, to make up for the shrinkage from the first salting, after which 

 they were carefully headed up and stowed in the hold. If the men kept 

 their catch separate, each one cut a private mark on the head of the 

 barrel containing his fish. As a rule, the mackerel were "stowed down" 

 whenever 40 or 50 barrels had accumulated on deck, but when fish were 

 abundant and took the hook freely for several days in succession it 

 often happened that more than a hundred barrels of fish would be 

 caught before any were put below. 



Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, informs us that the practice 

 of salting mackerel was inaugurated at Gloucester in 1818. Scituate 

 fishermen had begun this practice somewhat earlier. The methods of 

 salting have not materially changed since that time. Previous to 1850 

 the vessels engaged in mackerel fishing were generally accustomed to 

 carry butts, in which the fish were salted. 



Capt. Chester Marr tells us that in the early days the mackerel fisher- 

 men made a practice of salting the mackerel in hogsheads, which were 

 placed in the hold, standing on end, with stone ballast stowed in the 

 "spaces" between them. When a vessel was loaded she would hold 

 about 10 butts, or about 50 " wash-barrels." These butts were used until 

 about 1850. 



barrel of mackerel at his left hand, an empty barrel in front of him, and with a bucket 

 or basket of salt at his right, the fisherman rapidly transferred the fresh fish into the 

 proper barrel, iilacing each flesh up, and scattering over it with the right hand a 

 sufficient quantity of salt. An expert can thus take care of many more fish than 

 any one unacquainted with the method would believe possible, though, it is safe to 

 say, mackerel can be handled more expeditiously by the process of rubbing, and for 

 this reason the Cape Cod style of salting has never come into favor at Cape Ann and 

 on the coast of Maine. 



* The largest of the mackerel schooners had suificient capacity for stowing 20 or 25 

 butts, besides a number of barrels alongside of them in the wings on each side of the 

 hold. 



When salting mackerel in these casks, the salters worked in the hold. A gib tub was 

 filled with salt and set on top of the butts near the hatchway, and one man threw 

 down the mackerel from the deck into the salt box (or gib tub) while two others 

 standing alongside of the butts did the salting — one "rubbing" the fish and the other 

 packing them away in the proper place. When the cask was full a large stone was 

 placed on top of the fish to keep them beneath the brine so that they would not get 

 rusty. Each man usually had a hogshead of his own for the reception of his fish ; that 

 is, if each of the crew kept his catch separate. At that time, however, it Avas quite 

 generally the custom to "go on shares." This term, as then understood, differed radi- 

 cally from what is now meant by the same expression, and may be described as fol- 



