[249] HISTORY OF THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 



1851. — Terrible disaster to tiie bay fleet. 



In the Gloucester Telegraph of October 11, 1851, is reported a dis- 

 patch from B. H. Norton, esq., United States consul at Pictou, Nova 

 Scotia, which states that 100 sail of American vessels (all mackerel 

 catchers) and probably more than 300 lives were lost in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence, principally on the north side of Prince Edward Island, in a 

 terrific northeast gale, which had swept with almost unparalleled vio- 

 lence the waters and coasts of that region ou the 3d and -1th of October. 

 The Telegraph of October 25 gives the loss of lives, as then ascer- 

 tained, as 100. 



1851. — Reminiscences of capt. j. w. collins. 



In 1851 the mackerel, though abundant off the New England shore, 

 were of small and medium size, and were so low in price that the ma- 

 jority of the fleet went t^the Bay of Saint Lawrence, where large fish 

 could be obtained. About the 1st of July I shipped iu the schooner 

 44 Brutus," about 40 tons, old measurement, and made a trip mackerel- 

 fishing iu the Bay of Fundy. Having obtained a fare iu four or five 

 weeks, we packed out in Portland, and thinking we might do better else- 

 where, we went to the Bay of Saint Lawrence. There we caught a trip 

 of 1G0 barrels in about three or four weeks' time, taking these almost 

 wholly in and about the bend of Prince Edward Island, a large part of 

 them near Malpec. We left the fishing-ground on our return home about 

 the last of September, just in time to escape the terrible gale which 

 wrought such devastation among the large fleet of American mackerel 

 schooners which at that time were in the bend of Prince Edward Island. 

 It is now a matter of history that the northern shore of this island was 

 strewn with the wrecks of vessels and bodies of drowned fishermen 

 which were lost in this October gale. Never before had such a terrible 

 disaster occurred to our fishing fleets. So great, indeed, was the loss 

 of American vessels that this particular gale has been known to the resi- 

 dents of that proviuce as the Yankee gale. 



1851. — Vessels in the mackerel fleet. 



The following table, compiled by Mr. Alexander Starbuck from official 

 records, gives the number of vessels, tonnage, and number of men in 

 the crews of the mackerel vessels composiug the fleet in 1851 : 



