13 



In 1819, the United States, finding the fishing iodustiy 

 impoverished and declining, passed a Bormty act, which should 

 have been styled Indemnity Ad., giving to each vessel «nder 30 

 tons $8.50 per ton, for three and a half months' actual employ- 

 ment codfishing. Vessels over 30 tons, carrying not less than; 

 ten men, received i4 per ton, provided it did not exceed |3G0' 

 for any one vessel, three-eighths going to the vessel and five- 

 eighths to the crew. This act, (which was repealed ®tl sloseof 

 war of late Rebellion), gave a new impulse to the business, 

 although Gloucester in 1828 had increased her fleet to 164 

 schooners and 38 boats. Marblehead in 1831 had 57 vessels 

 in Cod and Mackerel fishery, their catch amounting to $160,490,, 

 each fisherman averaging $213.52 for eight months-^ fishings 

 mostly on the Grand Banks, which fishery was nofe then fo-lr 

 lowed by Gloucester vessels. 



In 1820 mackerel fishing, as a business, was prosecuted aiad 

 has continued with greatly varying success ever since. The 

 mode of catching mackerel, until the past ten years, was by 

 hand lines ; now they are caught by boats from the vessel, which 

 row around a " school" wlien they show themselves on the 

 surface of the sea, and throwing a seine, which, if, successful., 

 encloses the fish in a basin of net work, the bottom of the 

 seine being pursed up ; in this way hundreds of barreW are 

 sometimes taken at a single haul. 



The Georges' Bank cod fishery commenced in 1830,. from 

 which dangerous shoal the largest and best codfish are taken. 

 This fishery is prosecuted with hand lines, the tide rsnning 

 there so swift as to require frequently over one hundred fathoms 

 of line to reach the bottom. In 1836 the fresh halibut fishery 

 commenced, and is now one of Gloucester's specialties ; to 

 what extent the business has reached, I have already shown. 



