40 



market, in which, hitherto, one or two thousand pounds of halibut 

 would have sufficed for a daily supply, now furnished purchasers for 

 all that could be brought, till the weather became too warm for dis- 

 tant transportation ; and, when that season arrived, the fishermen 

 could sell at home, to be smoked and dried, all that could find no 

 sale in the former place. It was about 1836 that a vigorous prose- 

 cution of this business commenced, and it had risen to such impor- 

 tance in 1847, that the Gloucester vessels took in that year consid- 

 erably more than three millions of pounds, which sold for something 

 over seventy thousand dollars. Besides the Georges fishery for 

 halibut, it has been customary, for a few years past, for the fishermen 

 to resort to the Grand Bank, for the sole purpose of trawling for 

 this fish, and in some instances more than a hundred thousand 

 pounds have been brought home as the result of a few weeks' trip. 



On the opening of railroad communication between Boston and 

 Gloucester, it seemed expedient and practicable to bring the Boston 

 and other dealers in halibut to Gloucester to purchase ; and, to carry 

 out this design, a compan} T was formed to buy the fish of the fisher- 

 men, and await purchasers from abroad. But the enterprise, in a 

 money point of view, was a failure. The price to be paid was stip- 

 ulated for different periods in advance, and it so happened that it 

 was a year (1848) when Georges Bank yielded as it never had be- 

 fore. The object, however, at which the compan} T aimed, was fully 

 accomplished, which object was to make our own town the chief 

 market for this fish, so that now, however large the supply, local 

 dealers are ready to take them on arrival, and furnish Boston and 

 other customers according to the demand. 



Besides the fishery for halibut, Georges Bank has also contributed 

 in another way and to a much greater extent, to the recent prosper- 

 ity of Gloucester. The great abundance in which cod is sometimes 

 found there recalls to mind the " pestering" of Gosnold's ship with 

 them off Cape Cod, and the "strange fish-pond," where Capt. Smith 

 found them so plenty, near Monhegan. This abundance, and the 

 introduction of fresh herring from Newfoundland to be used for bait, 

 induced our fishermen to engage actively in a winter fishery on that 

 Bank. The success of the trip depends mainly upon wind and 

 weather. Sometimes the whole fleet return to port with the loss of 

 cables and anchors and with other damage, and without fish to com- 

 pensate. Often better luck attends them, and occasionally a few 

 favorable trips in succession yield a generous but still hardly ade- 

 quate reward for the risk, labor and suffering of the employment. 



