report of commissioner of fish and fisheries. [826] 

 1873. — The Gloucester mackerel fisheries. 



The southern fleet in the spring was of usual size — embracing 54 

 vessels — and fairly successful, marketing their early catch in New York 

 at good prices. 



The summer fishery off the shores of Maine, New Hampshire, and 

 Massachusetts was of respectable size, and mostly engaged in .seining 

 of mackerel, with a very good average success, although a few vessels 

 did not pay expenses. Eighty-six vessels engaged in this business. 

 Schooners "Beloidem" and "Empire State" were lost in this business. 



The Bay of Saint Lawrence fleet was unusually large, consisting of 

 185 vessels, against GO last year. The catch was good, and the business 

 would have proved quite successful but for the disastrous gale in August, 

 by which so many vessels were wrecked or temporarily disabled in the 

 height of the fishing season, materially reducing the receipts. Of the 

 185 Gloucester vessels engaged in this fishery 10 were wrecked, and are 

 total losses, and three remain ashore at the Magdalen Islands, but are 

 not abandoned. Twenty-six vessels made two bay trips each during the 

 season, and the whole number of fares received at Gloucester this season 

 will be 198 against 65 last year. — (Gloucester Telegraph, November 

 19, 1873.) 



1873. — REMINISCENCES OF CAPT. J. W. COLLINS. 



During the first part of 1873 I was engaged in the haddock and cod 

 fisheries. About the 25th of August I started from home on a macke- 

 rel trip to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, still being in the same vessel in 

 which I had sailed the three previous years. We arrived in the bay 

 soon after the first of September and immediately proceeded to the Mag 

 dalens. There we had an opportunity of witnessing the great destruc- 

 tion which had been wrought by the hurricane of the 24th and 25th of 

 August. At the head of Pleasant Bay, and in Harbor Le Barre, some 

 20 or 25 sail of American mackerel schooners were driven high up on 

 the sand ; many of them lying in such positions as to render it ex- 

 tremely doubtful if they could be again got afloat. Many vessels wero 

 also stranded on Prince Edward Island, some being lost with all hands, 

 while the crews of others were fortunate enough to escape. Some of 

 these schooners we had an opportunity of seeing later on our trip. I 

 have taken occasion to allude to this gale here, since it was one of the 

 most disastrous which our mackerel fleet has ever encountered, result- 

 ing in very great loss of life and property. The mackerel were scarce 

 in the bay during the fall of 1873, and though mostly of a large size 

 were not so fat as might be expected. We fished most of the time about 

 the Magdalen Islands, visiting, however, other points of the bay more 

 or less frequently. We succeeded in obtaining a fare of 208 barrels, and 

 returned home about the middle of November. 



