2768 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. And that you think is the best material ? A. Yes ; for our fishing 

 vessels. 



Q. It wears the longest ? A. Yes. 



Q. And yet it won't wear over two years ? A. Xo. 



Q. You have had a good deal to do in fitting out vessels, &c. ; what 

 would a well-built vessel now cost, as she is launched, and what has 

 such a vessel cost, say of 100 tons, built at Essex or Gloucester, on the 

 average during the last five or six years ? A. Without rigging or 

 sails ? 



Q. Rigged but without provisions what would she cost round 

 tackled, with sails and rigging ? A. Such a vessel would be worth 

 $7,500. 



Q. We will call it $8,000; suppose she cost this sum, what would her 

 depreciation be for the first year, if nothing extraordinary happens, and 

 if she is kept in good order, painted, and the rigging rove wherever this 

 was required ; what would the depreciation on her market value be in 

 one year under such circumstances? A. If I set it at $1,000 for the 

 first year, that would be a very low sum. 



Q. That would be one-eighth of her whole cost ? A. Yes ; and that 

 would be a very low figure. 



Q. What do you think her fair average depreciation would be ? A. 

 I should consider that a fair average would be $1,000 for one year's 

 running from the time she first leaves the harbor; but it would go over 

 that. 



Q. It would more likely be more than less ? A. Yes. 



Q. What would it be after the first year, supposing she is kept in good 

 order all the while and suffers no extraordinary injury ? A. Perhaps it 

 might be $500 or $600 a year. 



Q. W T hat is considered among persons who deal in these vessels to be 

 the average life of a fishing-vessel, supposing that she is well built and 

 well taken care of? You count her as a fish ing- vessel down to the 

 time when it becomes difficult to insure her, and so long as a company 

 will take her as fairly qualified to make fishing voyages ? A. Yes. I do 

 not know about this, but I have understood from the people in Glouces- 

 ter, who have figured it up, that the average life of a fishing- vessel is 

 fourteen years, but then I have never made it a study to find it out 

 for myself. 



Q. You take the current opinion in Gloucester on this point? A. 

 Yes. 



By Mr. Thomson : 



Q. Do I understand you to say that fourteen years is the longest 

 period a Gloucester fishing- vessel lives ? A. No. I think that there 

 are vessels which are a great deal older, but on the average this is not 

 the case. 



Q. How old have you known them to be run in Gloucester ? A. For 

 twenty-five or thirty years, I think, and perhaps longer. 



Q. For vessels accustomed to tish in the Bay of St. Lawrence ? A. 

 Yes. 1 think it is likely they have fished there. 



Q. According to you, a vessel worth $8,000 would depreciate $1,000 

 a year I A. Yes, for the first year. 



Q. And the next year she would depreciate in value $600 ? A. Yes, 

 and I should think that would be a very low figure. 



Q. And the next year bow much would it be f A. Less. , 



Q. At what time would the depreciation stop altogether ? A. O, well, 

 after a vessel has depreciated for 4 or 5 years, she does not dopre -late 

 any more for a number of years. 



