332 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



of ice factories in tbe interior of Alabama, where they had before done a considerable 

 business in ice, which was cut off by the new competition. 



As is the case with most successful industries, the beginnings were small. During 

 the following five or six years the trade was pushed into every market that could be 

 reached by express or freight, without much regard to present profit, but looking to 

 the future trade for compensation. During this time the business was suspended 

 in the summer months, the principal dependence for supply being on contracts with 

 northern smacks, which came every fall from the North and East and returned home 

 at the end of Lent. This proving unsatisfactory, a beginning was made in 1879 of a 

 fleet owned by the dealers, and so under their control. One vessel was bought. From 

 this single vessel the fleet has now grown until it numbers some 35 vessels owned in 

 Pensacola, 4 in Mobile, and 2 in New Orleans, the latter belonging to retail dealers, 

 who use them for the local trade. This fleet is of many sizes, ranging from 20 to 50 

 tons measurement, and of varying ages, from 50 years to those which were launched 

 this last year. The old ones are of all descriptions, some having been Boston and New 

 York pilot boats, others eastern bankers, and many were built for the New York and 

 Fulton market fisheries. The new ones are of the most modern design and construc- 

 tion, being the product of the best designers, whose plans have been executed in the 

 shipyards of Massachusetts and Maine by some of the best builders of the Eastern 

 States. Very recently one of this design has been launched from a Pensacola ship- 

 yard and built of Florida woods, which it is believed will prove the pioneer of a large 

 fleet, and that thus a new industry will grow up on Florida soil. 



At first all smacks were provided with wells for the bringing of live fish and 

 ventured only a short distance from port, seldom going east of Cape San Bias and 

 being satisfied with loads of 5,000 to 6,000 pounds weight. In those days fish 

 seemed more plentiful than now. It was not uncommon for a smack to make a nip 

 every week during favorable weather, landing what was considered a good load on 

 every voyage. As the demand increased and the price of ice became lower the taking 

 of ice to sea in connection with the well fishing was begun. It proved so successful 

 that it soon superseded the well fishing, and for some years only two vessels supplied 

 with wells have been in use, even these depending on ice the most of the year, only 

 bringing fish in the wells during the favorable time in the summer. It has been found 

 that better and sounder delivery to the consumer can be made with the use of ice t han 

 in any other way. The introduction of ice has broadened the boundaries of the fishing- 

 grounds so that snappers are now caught as far as the region of Tortugas on the one 

 side, in latitude 24, longitude 83, and at the extreme western end of Campeche bank, in 

 latitude 20, longitude 1)2, some 700 miles from Pensacola. These voyages are usually 

 made without the use of chronometers, dependence being put entirely on the dead 

 reckoning as furnished by the aid of the patent log and observations for latitude by 

 the sextant. 



The skill that has been developed among the skippers is little less than marvelous, 

 they being able to beat back and forth across the whole breadth of the dnlf of Mexico, 

 making their landfalls with precision, and often being spoken both by sailing and 

 st earn merchantmen, who correct their observed position by the aid of the illiterate 

 fishermen, to whom the more exact methods of astronomical navigation are unknown. 

 Masters of dead-reckoning, they are also expert seamen and are able to bring their 

 craft, having a freeboard of only a foot or two, through gales and hurricanes that 

 cover the Gulf with the wreckage of merchantmen of a thousand tons. 



