134 FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



or steamer to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Lowell and other large cities, 

 where they find ready sales. The codfish are discharged mostly at the 

 wharves of the vessel owners, where they are decapitated and then salted in 

 butts, and when sufficiently salt are transferred to the flakes for a given 

 time and dried. Then they find their way, the most of them, in these days, 

 to the skinning lofts, where nimble fingers divest them of skin and bones, 

 and the solid pieces of fish, handsome as can be, are packed in boxes from 

 ten to two hundred pounds each, which find their way from the warehouses 

 of our enterprising fish producers to all sections of this countr}^ The trade 

 is simply immense, and constantly on the increase, for the praise of the 

 Gloucester boneless cod is abroad in the land, and dealers and consumers 

 demand it from headquarters, direct from first hands. 



Who would have thought, from the small beginning in the putting up of 

 boneless codfish, of only a few years since, that such large results would 

 follow? And now that fish is packed in such clean, attractive packages, the 

 attention of consumers is drawn toward it. The old objection to stripping 

 and cleaning, and purchasing so much waste, is heard no more. The clean 

 fish ready for a salt fish dinner or fish balls, is now for sale by all first-class 

 grocers in the country, and the Gloucester brands, of which there are sev- 

 eral hundred, each large purchaser having his private brands, are printed 

 indelibly on the boxes. Some of these brands are very handsome and add 

 much to the attractiveness of the packages. 



The first man, Mr. George H. Smith, we tli-ink it was, who put up fish in 

 this way, never dreamed that this act of his would revolutionize the entire 

 fish trade, but so it has proved ! The old fish dealers, conservative, as they 

 had a right to be, saw not the cloud which was rising, but kept in the old 

 channels of shipping whole fish, until their customers demanded of them 

 the boneless fish in boxes. And then they gave way to the inevitable. 

 There was no help for it. Either adopt the new mode or lose the business 

 altogether. And they entered into the business with the same energy which 

 characterized their oiher transactions, and we have to-day, here in old 

 (}loucester, a business which is noiv only in its infancy, a business which 

 will keep the fleet busy, which will take all the fish they can catch, at remu- 

 nerative prices, a business which will keep Gloucester in the front as a fish- 

 ing port and furnish occupation for her people. 



It's lively all through, from the time the vessel leaves the harbor until 

 she arrives on the ground, and from the catching of the fish to the dressing, 

 then the salting and drying, boning and skinning, shipping, and finally the 

 serving up of the toothsome dish on the table with drawn butter and egg 

 sauce, or the good old fashioned pork scraps, with beets and potatoes. 



