MASSACHUSETTS: GLOUCESTER DISTRICT. 163 







double wages, as they sell the dried hake for about $1.50 per quintal, and the dried sounds lor GO 

 to 75 cents per pound, the livers being tried out for their oil. 



In seasons of the year when alewives, mackerel, or herring are along the shore, the boats 

 supply themselves with bait from their nets, each boat, having usually four nets set in the harbors. 

 They visit these about daylight and then start out on their day's fishing, to return in the after- 

 noon in season to market their fish in Gloucester, or to send them to Boston for the next morning's 

 trade. In the winter months the chief bait of the boats is sperling or small herring taken in 

 the rivers, and frozen herring from Grand Mauan and Eastport. The grounds visited by the 

 boats are mostly within a short distance of land, and have received various peculiar names, such 

 as Old Man's Pasture, Honey Pink, Saturday Night, and Eleven Fathom Ground. Both hand- 

 lines and trawls are used; most of the dory fishermen prefer the former, although during the 

 haking season all use trawls. 



The shore fisheries from Gloucester were of considerable importance about 1832, when 799 

 men were employed in it. The catch, 63,112 quintals of cod, was valued at $157,780, and a 

 Government bounty of $25,172 was received. In 1804, when the bank fisheries were almost 

 abandoned, the shore fisheries employed two hundred sail. Most of this boat-fishing was carried 

 on at Sandy Bay or Kockport, which was then a part of Gloucester, and that place has continued 

 until the present day to be more or less engaged in these fisheries. 



The boats in use at the beginning of the century were mostly the Chebacco boats of some 15 

 tons burden, and carrying four or five men. They had two masts, but no bowsprit. A small 

 cuddy forward afforded sleeping room for the men on their trips, lasting usually four or five days. 

 These boat-fishermen seldom ventured more than 20 or 30 miles from shore. Dory-fishing began 

 about 1825, and is still carried on off Cape Ann more or less throughout the year. In early years 

 fish were very abundant in the harbor and all about Gloucester, so that in the haddock season in 

 the spring there was no difficulty in securing a. boat-load in a short time. Since 18GG haddock 

 Lave been more abundant oft'shore, and their capture has been by large vessels. 



Codfish, hake, and pollock have been the principal catch of the shore boats, and some good 

 day's work have been made. Two men at Folly Cove took 3,900 pounds of codfish in one day in 

 the winter of 1877-T8. The method of fishing since 1855 has been mostly by trawls, though hand- 

 lines are used at some seasons of the year. 



THE BOAT-FISHERY FOR HERRING. There is no extensive fishery with gill-nets in the vicinity 

 of Gloucester except for a few weeks in the fall of the year, when the herring visit these shores to 

 spawn. Many of the shore-boats are supplied with nets for the capture of bait, setting them in 

 various parts of the outer harbor, and taking each day enough alewives or herring for the day's 

 fishing. Occasionally schools of mackerel visit the harbor, when the bait-nets capture a consid- 

 erable number. On the north side of the cape the shore-boats take more mackerel in this way 

 than the harbor boats, but in neither case is it an important fishery. The nets in use are about 

 four hundred in number, and are generally 20 fathoms long by 3 fathoms deep, with 1 to 2 inch 

 mesh, the average mesh being 2J inches. 



During the latter part of September and the early part of October herring are usually very 

 plenty along the shores of Cape Ann, and about 10,000 barrels are annually captured by a fleet of 

 about one hundred and fifty boats and vessels equipped with gill nets. 



In the season of 1879 the herring made their appearance on the 20th of September. Through 

 the succeeding week few were taken, but on Sunday, the 28th, they were very abundant, and consid- 

 erable numbers were captured in the nets. During Wednesday and Thursday of this week the fish- 

 ermen were busy enough. The weather was mild, water smooth, and everything favorablc*lbr a 



