[69] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



home port, where the fish are lauded, new supplies taken on board, and 

 again the men go to sea without, in the mean time, having an oppor- 

 tunity of visiting their homes or of securing the rest they so much 

 stand in need of. So sharp is the competition in this fishery, and so 

 eager are the fishermen to "make hay while the sun shines," that is, to 

 improve every opportunity during the short season while the mackerel 

 can be taken, that the only limit to their labors is when nature is no 

 louger able to sustain the extraordinary drafts that are made upon it. 

 The following notes written by Capt. S. J. Martin will serve to give an 

 idea of the continued labor and consequent fatigue which the fishermen 

 endure : 



" Our mackerel fishermen have drove business this year. I know a 

 number of cases where vessels came in in the morning with 300 bar- 

 rels of mackerel [which were landed] and went out [agaiu] the same 

 night. The schooner " Fleetwing" caught 210 barrels of mackerel ; came 

 into Gloucester with them all on deck; hired 20 men who had them [the 

 fish] all dressed and salted at two o'clock the following morning. The 

 vessel's crew went home to sleep ; went out again the same morning at 

 eight o'clock. 



"Schooner "William M. Gaffney" came in here with 450 barrels of 

 mackerel, of which 150 barrels were fresh on deck. The men had not 

 been to sleep for two days and nights, and were nodding while putting 

 the mackerel in the barrels. They got the mackerel all salted at four 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Captain Smith then told the men to go home 

 and rest till morning, but to be down the first thing after breakfast, as 

 he wanted to get the mackerel out and go to sea in the evening. This 

 they did." 



The success of the night fishing was quite marked in the fall of 1881, 

 as has been iudicated above, and as the following paragraphs will show: 



"Several of the [mackerel] fleet have made night hauls recently, some 

 of them securing as high as 200 to 300 barrels at one setting of the 

 seiue. The operations are conducted by a lookout stationed at the 

 foremast-head of the vessel, who gives the orders to the boat's crew in 

 charge of the seine, as in the night-time the motions of a school of 

 mackerel cannot be seen from the boat in pursuit of the fish, nor from 

 the deck of the schooner." — (Cape Ann Advertiser, October 21, 1831.) 



"Scbooner "Henry Friend" took 140 wash barrels [of mackerel] at 

 one haul Sunday night [October 10]." 



Schooner "Phantom" went out Sunday morning, and about 11 o'clock 

 ]>. m. discovered a school of mackerel on Middle Bank, and getting her 

 seine out secured ninety wash barrels. The night was very dark, and 

 lanterns were found necessary to conduct the seining operations and find 

 the way back to the vessel. — (Cape Ann Advertiser, October 28, 1881.) 



In regard to the night fishiug for mackerel in the fall of 1881, Cap- 

 tain Martin writes as follows: 



"Seven eighths of the mackerel since the 10th of September have 



