THE RED SNAPPER FISHERIES: THEIR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 



BY ANDREW F. WARREN. 



The subject assigned to me is one whose breadth covers the whole of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and \yhose history extends from the times of myth, commonly designated 

 "before the war." This history must be based mostly on fishermen's tales, which are 

 of proverbial authority, but whose credibility no disciple of Saint Peter would deny. 

 During the little time I have been able to snatch from other duties I have interviewed 

 such old-timers as still survive, aud have compiled this history from their accounts. 



Somewhere in the late forties or early fifties some New London fishermen ven- 

 tured into the Gulf of Mexico in pursuit of snappers. They sailed in small sloops, 

 such as were used in the cod fisheries on the Nantucket shoals for New York market 

 purposes, none being over 15 or 20 tons measurement, and carrying in their wells 

 loads of live fish of not more than 5,000 or 0,000 pounds. The catch was sold at New 

 Orleans at a price commensurate with the dangers of the passage from the home port 

 and with the scale of values that then governed the markets of New Orleans in all 

 lines. 



Capt. Leonard Deskin, of New London, seems to have been the pioneer. He 

 suffered shipwreck on one of his outward voyages and never returned to his home. 

 He settled on the Florida coast, near East Pass, Pensacola Bay, where he lived during 

 the war, and died some fifteen years since, leaving a family who still pursue the same 

 industry. 



During the later years of the war the fishery was pursued by other vessels, some 

 of Southern build and others from Connecticut. They mostly disposed of their catrh 

 in New Orleans, the fish often selling for from $1.50 to $2 per " bunch." The "bunch v 

 was a varying quantity, ranging as the state of the market might seem to justify 

 from 10 to 20 pounds, no "bunch" being considered marketable unless it contained at 

 least two fish ; so that only purses tilled by the depreciated currency of the day could 

 afford the luxury of a baked or boiled snapper. 



The rumors of these prices, together with the allurements of our summer s.eas, 

 induced some fishermen whose apprenticeship had been served on the Georges Banks 

 and amid the whirling tide rips of the Vineyard Shoals, to wet a line on the Snapper 

 Banks. Some adventurous fishermen, mostly from Noank, Conn., were enticed to 

 make winter voyages to the Gulf of Mexico. Having better aud more fully equipped 

 smacks than the natives, they did well, and for some years held the monopoly of the 

 trade in Mobile and New Orleans. This trade, however, was a local and mostly retail 

 trade the difficulties of transportation, not only in time, but in price, together with 

 the high cost of ice, averaging nearly 2 cents per pound, making a shipping trade 

 impossible. About 1872 the first venture in the snapper business at Pensacola was 

 made, the Peusacola Ice Company being forced into the business by the establishment 



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