[115] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



ble accounts of any fishermen from other ports engaging in this fishery 

 at an earlier date. 



"Capt. John Parsons, of Bockport," writes Mr. A. Howard Clark, 

 says "that he was one of the first to go south after mackerel from that 

 port. He went in 1817 in the schooner ' Defiance' of 35 tons. They 

 went as far south as Cape May, and caught CO barrels of mackerel, all 

 of which were taken by drailing. They had outriggers for towing their 

 lines, and the lead sinkers weighed from 4 to 6 pounds." 



An item in the Cape Ann Advertiser of May 20, 1859, remarks : 



"The practice of going south for mackerel has almost died out of late 

 years, and this year there are but three or four vessels in the business. 

 Some of the vessels which go in quest of bait take mackereling appara- 

 tus with them." 



"The practice of going south for mackerel in spring," writes Mr. Earll, 

 "was first begun in Maine by a Georgetown vessel, the 'Queen of the 

 West,' Capt. Francis Lowe, in May, 1851. She was gone but a short 

 time (four to six weeks), and returned with a full fare, after which she 

 proceeded to the bay. The next year the schooner 'Areola,' Capt. 

 Warren Low, of Georgetown, joined the 'Queen of the West' on her 

 southern spring trip, and in 1853 three went. Booth Bay sent none 

 south until 1867, when the 'Cynosure' went, and Southport sent her 

 first vessel south in 1868. In 1879 five or six went from this section. 

 Vessels from Massachusetts, as stated above, had engaged in this fish- 

 ery at even an earlier date." 



G.— THE EAELY METHODS OF THE MACKEEEL FISHEEY 



(1620 to 1820). 



35. — Catching mackerel with drag-seines. 



The method chiefly practiced by the colonists of New England for the 

 capture of mackerel was that of drag-seining, and we find as early as 1626 

 a record of the establishment, by Isaac Allerton, of a fishing station at 

 Hull, where mackerel were seined by moonlight. There can be little doubt 

 that the practice of fishing with baited hooks was also early introduced, 

 and that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries groups of boats 

 might have been seen, as at the present day, clustered together in the 

 harbors, or near the outer shores, their crews busily engaged in hauling 

 in the tinkers, and, occasionally, larger mackerel, which during the 

 summer season found their way into these protected waters. It is not 

 known when the custom of drailing for mackerel was first introduced, 

 but it was, beyond question, the common method at the close of the 

 last and the beginning of the present century. 



In July, 1677, the records of the Plymouth colony show that the Cape 

 Cod fishery was let seven years, at £30 per annum, to seine mackerel 

 and bass, to certain individuals who are named. They were restricted 



