fishermen's memorial and record book. 67 



ermen with considerable anxiety. Their scarcity or abundance de- 

 cided the purchasing of many articles of comfort in the fisherman's 

 family, and therefore all were interested in having a good pollock 

 catch to wind up with. 



Mention has been made that the fish were landed on the beaches 

 to be dressed. This was done from necessity, as there were no 

 wharves then in town, from 1812 to 1820, below "William Pearce & 

 Son's wharf, except the remains of Rogers', at Rowe's bank, which 

 had only one side at which a small vessel could lie, and Friend's 

 wharf, a cob of about 50 x 20 feet, the remains of a pier of about 

 30x15 feet, at what is now Deacon Parker's wharf, and a smallland- 

 ing place at Capt. Daniel Sayward's. Beyond, on the Point side, not 

 a landing place of any description was to be seen. In the Harbor 

 Cove, at the Fort, was the Parsons wharf, now Poole's. On the beach 

 there was only Moses Gilbert's. No additional wharves were built 

 on the beach until after 1820. There were the remains of a few cobs 

 left of the early fishermen before the Revolution. 



The Georges halibut and cod fishery is of more recent date. It 

 became a permanent business enterprise in the years of 1835 and '36, 

 although vessels commenced going there for halibut some five years 

 previous, in 1830. In the first years of the business the catch was 

 almost entirely of halibut. In a full fare there would not be more 

 than from six to ten quintals of codfish caught. Halibut were so 

 plenty in these early years of the Georges fishery, and for some years 

 after, that trips were got without anchoring the vessel at all. Sever- 

 al vessels went with their chain cable only. These trips of halibut 

 were marketed mostly in Boston. In 1848 this school of halibut 

 culminated. This, also, was the season of the Gloucester Halibut 

 Company. The wonderful catch that Spring greatly overstocked the 

 market ; so much so, that under the stated price agreed upon, the 

 company could not continue through the month of April, and had to 

 stop fulfilling their contracts, and wind up. As an evidence of the 

 abundance of these fish this season, we have only to mention that at one 

 time in April nearly half a million pounds of halibut were afloat in 

 this harbor. 



About this time codfish were first sold fresh, after being dressed, 

 from the vessel, thus commencing the marketing of all kinds of fish on 

 their arrival in port. Heretofore the fish were landed and salted and 

 put into the shoresman's hands for drying, the allowance to him be- 

 ing one fourteenth part of the net proceeds for his services, to be 



