2626 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. What do you make of his statement that it was 40 barrels ? A. I 

 can't make anything out of it. 



Q. Now, there is a man, Ronald McDonald. On page 396 of the tes- 

 timony he is asked and answers as follows : 



Q. Have you fished in American vessels ? A. Yes. 



Q. How many years ? A. About seven summers. 



Q. When did you first go in an American schooner ? A. About 1859 or I860. 



Q. What is the name of the first vessel ? A. Daniel McPhee, Gloucester, Daniel 

 McPhee, captain. 



Q. Where did you fish ? A. We began to fish along the island toward North Cape, 

 Prince Edward Island. 



Q. And you fished along at all the usual places ? A. Yes. 



Q. What did you catch that year ? A. About 200 barrels for the season. 



Q. How far from shore did you usually fish ? A. We fished mostly all over the bay. 

 The principal part of the fish we got on the Canada shore and Cape Breton shore and 

 along the island. We caught a few on Bank Bradley, and some up northward, about 

 Margaree. The principal part we got on the Cape Breton shore. 



Jfow, can you tell us anything about this man in the Daniel McPhee, 

 either in 1859 or 1860 ? A. In 1859 she was on the stocks. 



Q. Did she afterwards go off under command of Daniel McPhee? 

 A. Yes. 



Q. To the gulf ? A. Yes. 



Q. With what result? A. The first trip was 17 barrels of mackerel, 

 of which Ronald McDonald's share was 35 cents. On the second trip 

 she got 122i, and Ronald McDonald was not one of the crew. 



Q. Now, there is a deponent named William H. Molloy, whose affi- 

 davit was put in on behalf of the British Government. He says : 



The result of my last year's operations is as follows : 



Total catch thirty-seven hundred quintals for the season, three Banking trips ; value 

 thereof about seventeen thousand dollars; expenses of wages, crew's share of voyage, 

 outfit and provisions was about twelve thousand dollars, leaving a clear profit to the 

 owner of about five thousand dollars. The owner derives a considerable profit also from 

 the difference between the prices he allows the crews for their share of fish, and what 

 it is worth to him in the market, by which he would gain on the quantity above stated 

 about eighteen hundred dollars. 



What have you to say to that ? A. I think that Captain Mulloy does 

 not seem to understand his business. In the first place he exaggerates 

 the number of vessels that are on the Banks from Gloucester, and then 

 he goes on and gives an account of the profits. Take his own state- 

 ment. I have made up a little memorandum. The expenses of the ves- 

 sel, he says, are $12,000 ; shrinkage and cost of curing 3,700 quintals, 

 at $1 per quintal, is $3,700, which gives $15,700. It sells 30,132 quin- 

 tals, dry, for $4.80 per quintal, equal to $14,462.40, leaving a loss of 

 $1,237.60 instead of $6,800 gain. 



Q. Then you say his own calculation does not produce the results? 

 A. Not what he states. 



Q. In point of fact, has he made his statement correctly? A. I 

 should say that 3,700 quintals of codfish caught by a vessel one season 

 was a very large catch, and to make three trips, and make a full aver- 

 age each trip, is a remarkably successful year's voyage. 



Q. Then he speaks of the difference between the price allowed the 

 crew for their share of the fish, and what it is worth in the market, and 

 says the owner would gain on the quantity above stated about $1,800. 

 If he takes the value of the fish in the same state in which they are 

 landed they are worth no more to the owners than the crew? A. No. 



Q. Their superior value is the result of labor and skill afterward put 

 upon them? A. Yes. Fish are never bought in Gloucester, to my* 

 knowledge, by the quintal from a vessel. The price of fish last year 

 was $2.75 per 100 pounds from the vessel, green. 



