PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. 25 
Amoor 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 1868 Capt. Turner cnce more sailed in the Timandra to Amoor 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 Capt. 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 interfered 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 Capt. 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. 
Capt. 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 1865 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 Capt. 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 
oh 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 originally built in New England for the Atlantic 
fisheries, but had sailed around Cape Horn to find employment in the business 
of the Occident. It is remarkable that one of those that crossed the Pacific, 
sailing about 5,000 miles from home, was only 20 tons, a mere boat in which 
to make such a voyage, and to return loaded “nearly decks to the water.” 
Following are the names and tonnage (in round numbers) of the fleet: Hquity, 
63 tons; Flying Dart, 84 tons; H. L. Ruggles, 75 tons; J. D. Sanborn, 71 tons; 
Mary Cleveland, 91 tons; Porpoise, 45 tons; and Taccon, 20 tons. 
The Okhotsk Sea fleet all secured full fares and returned in safety. The fish 
were small, averaging only about 3 pounds each when dry. But in those early 
