FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK, 213 



The Haddock Fisheries— Then and Now. 



Marked Changes within a Half -Century, 



BY CAPT. STEPHEN J. MARTIN. 



My recollection of the haddock fishery extends back to the days of my 

 boyhood at East Gloucester, in 1832. From 1832 to about 1838 Amos 

 Story and Jefferson Rowe would go out at daylight and be back at 8 A. M. 

 with a dory full of haddock, dress them, and go out in the afternoon, catch 

 another dory load, and be back at 4 P. M. in season to dress their fare be- 

 fore nightfall. They would go no farther than the Old Pine Tree. I have 

 known them to load their dories on a ledge between Ten Pound Island and 

 Niles' Wharf. 



In the years 1838 and 1839 I went fishing from Eastern Point in a boat 

 called the Eastern Star, When the haddock came on the coast in April we 

 tended Boston market with haddock, and would be on the fishing ground 

 at daylight, catch what we could ourselves and buy all we wanted from the 

 dories at one cent per fish, and start for market. The Eastern Star was four- 

 teen tons, with no bowsprit. If we got two cents apiece for our fish we 

 thought we were doing well. 



The haddock remained inshore and were caught in the harbor until 185 1. 

 In 185 1 James Coas and myself loaded a fifteen-foot dory twice in one day, 

 within two miles of the mouth of the harbor. From that time until 1864 

 the boats caught their haddock from three to four miles from the shore. 

 From 1832 to 1845 the haddock were taken with hand-lines. 



In the year 1864 Capt. Daniel Douglass fitted out the schooner i?^w/ for 

 haddocking. There was a good deal of talk at the time because he went 

 haddocking in so large a vessel, her measurement being 66 tons. He car- 

 ried four dories, five hundred hooks to a dory, and fished on the Inner 

 Bank. Some days he would catch 40,000 lbs., and sell them for 75 cents 

 a hundred, by count. Now the haddock vessels carry six dories, 1,200 

 hooks to a dory. 



Since 1866 the haddock have been working off shore. For the past fif- 

 teen years the small vessels, 45, 50 and 60 tons, have fished on the off-shore 

 grounds, on Jeffries, Tilley's, and sometimes on Middle Bank, some twenty 

 or twenty-five miles off, and but few haddock have been taken in-shore in 

 the Winter months during the last ten years. 



Now the haddock fleet go to Georges and LaHave Banks, and some of 

 them go as far as the Western Bank. They go in the largest fishing vessels, 



