FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK, 165 



[From Report of Commissioner 0/ Fish and Fisheries ?\^ 



Life on Board a Mackerel Catcher— Mackerel Catching 

 with the Purse-Seine. 



Norwegian Commissioner to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 



After having waited some time for an opportunity to go to sea, to witness 

 the business out there, I succeeded in getting a promise of a place on board 

 the sch. William S. Baker^ Captain A. K. Pearce. It was an old vessel, but 

 a good sailer, and the captain was recommended to me as an experienced, 

 enlightened, and generous man, who would take much interest in communi- 

 cating to me all the information he could give. He had carried on the 

 herring fishing at Labrador, halibut fishing off the west coast of Greenland, 

 and was now determined to prosecute mackerel fishing in the sea north of 

 Boston. 



Late on a rainy evening I was informed that the vessel was now ready to 

 sail, in Gloucester Harbor, and that I could come on board. Neither the 

 weather nor the vessel particularly invited one out in the dark, foggy night. 

 But after being shown a tolerably good bunk astern, where besides myself 

 four of the crew had quarters, I soon found myself adjusted and anxious to 

 get under sail. Early in the morning we cast loose and the vessel hauled 

 out into the channel. But the wind was still ; we could make no headway. 

 While we waited for the wind a portion of the crew passed away the time 

 by taking a bath and swimming out into the deep. Their invitation to me 

 to swim a race with them I was in the notion of accepting, when the signal 

 was given to make sail and get under way. All came on board, took off 

 their swimming clothes, put on dry clothes, and caught hold at the anchor- 

 breaking and later at the hauling out, so that it was a pleasure to see them. 

 The brutal execution of discipline, so often censured on American merchant- 

 ships, did not exist on board here. The whole crew were native Americans, 

 active and experienced fishermen. They associated with one another with 

 good-will, eating at a common table to us all, and carried on their work 

 with mutual satisfaction. Neither beer nor whisky is found on board ; but 

 warm coffee and tea can be had from five in the morning to six o'clock in 

 the evening. In other respects the victuals were good and nourishing, con- 

 sisting mostly of beef, pork, all kinds of fresh fish, different kinds of pie and 

 pudding, sometimes vegetables, with eggs occasionally ; in short, about as 



