2300 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



is, you say, the safest place in the gulf ? A. One vessel and her crew ; 

 and we consider such a loss heavier than if 8 or 10 vessels go ashore, 

 but are got off. 



Q. But how many went ashore there ? A. Twenty-odd vessels. We 

 had 38 vessels, more or less, stranded that year in the bay. 



Q. And twenty-odd of them went ashore at the Magdalen Islands f 

 A. Yes. 



Q. Were there not more than 20 ? A. The number was about 20. I 

 could not say exactly. 



Q. Would you say that 30 vessels were not cast ashore at the Magda- 

 len Islands ? A. The number was 24, if I remember the figure aright. 



Q. I will give you some names ; there was the Arizona ? A. Where 

 was she ashore ? 



Q. At Amherst Harbor. A. Yes. 



Q. Then there was the Annie 0. Norwood ? A. I remember her. 



Q. And the H. M. Woodworth, cast ashore at Auiherst Harbor ? A. 

 I guess that she was not a Gloucester vessel. 



Q. I am alluding to American vessels generally. Then, you say that 

 there were 20 Gloucester vessels which went ashore at the Magdalen 

 Islands ? A. Yes. 



Q. And you would not be surprised to learn that ten others went 

 ashore there ? A. There were more than 10. I think there were as 

 many as 10 I know of, from Eastport and Boston. 



Q. These were all fishing- vessels ? A. Yes. Most of them got off 

 safe, but the vessels around East Point and the bend of the island 

 were lost totally, crews and all. 



Q. Perhaps they were out at sea ? A. They were in the bend of the 

 island. 



Q. The Carrie C. Eich went ashore on Prince Edward Island ; but 

 can you name any other American vessel from Gloucester or elsewhere 

 that did so ? A. The vessels lost with all hands were last seen going 

 up off the Bend of Prince Edward Island. 



Q. They were at sea ? A. They did not get by North Cape ; that 

 was what was the matter with them ; else they would have been saved. 

 By Mr. Foster : 



Q. The gentlemen on the other side do not understand what makes a 

 Massachusetts town prosper ; and I would like to know, in the first place, 

 whether the valuation of Gloucester to-day does not stand substantially 

 as it did during the war ? A. Yes ; very nearly. 



Q. So that there has not been a great deal taken off from the valua- 

 tion made in war times ? A. No ; very little. 



Q. And yet is it not the experience of almost everybody in the United 

 States that owned property at the close of the war that it shrunk one- 

 third? A. Yes. 



Q. Gloucester has grown, undoubtedly, but take Essex County, in 

 which Gloucester is situated; and what are the other towns in this 

 county that used to have a considerable fishing business; the compari- 

 son has been made between 1840 and the present time ; and what are 

 the other places in Essex County that used to have a fishing business, 

 which has left them and been absorbed into Gloucester Salem, Mar- 

 blehead, Manchester, Beverly, and Newburyport what has been the 

 history of the fishing business in these towns ? A. It has entirely gone 

 from Manchester. I remember the time when 18 vessels were owned 

 there, but they have not had any for 20 years. Salem had a fleet of 20 

 vessels, and has none now. The fleet of Beverly has decreased to about 

 20, a decrease of 50 per cent, in these 15 years. 



