FEESH-BALIBUT FISHERY. 29 



halibut trips from the Banks : Carrie P. Morton, 114,540 pounds; Davy Crockett, 99,980 pounds; 

 Edwin C. Dolliver, 93,000 pounds; Notice, 70,000 pounds; Howard, 95,000 pounds." 



May 22, 1877, the schooner G. P. Whitman, Capt. Jerome McDonald, of Gloucester, arrived 

 from the "Gully," after four weeks' absence, with 137,510 pounds of halibut, which sold for 

 $3,254.54. 



With the exception of the above, the largest cargo of fresh halibut ever brought into Glou- 

 cester, aud without doubt the largest ever taken, was that brought in by the schooner Centennial, 

 Capt. D. C. Murphy, in 1877. The fare amounted to 137,000 pounds, over 100,000 pounds of which 

 were white halibut. These fish were taken on the Grand Bank in latitude 43 30' north, longi- 

 tude 52 04' west, at a depth of 87 fathoms. 



In 18G8, schooner William T. Merchant, Capt. Nelson A. McKenuey, stocked $4,200 on a fare 

 of 48,310 pounds of halibut, caught on a trip of twenty-six days. The same year the Merchant 

 caught a fare at Miquelon Beach of 103,450 pounds of halibut, being absent from home twenty- 

 five days. 



The schooner Mary Carlisle, Capt. William Thompson, made nine trips to the Banks in 1871. 

 Her catch was 350,188 pounds of halibut and 58,759 pounds of codfish ; her net stock amounted 

 to $17,275.53 for about eleven mouths' work, from December 27, 1870, to November 21, 1871. On 

 one trip in the spring she brought in 58,553 pounds of halibut and 6,900 pounds of codfish, her 

 net stock reaching the sum of $4,738.75, and her crew sharing $236.25 each from a voyage of 

 thirty-four days. She had ten men in her crew, each of whom during the season shared $858.62. In 

 three years this vessel stocked a total of $46,871.53, divided as follows: 1869, $17,549; 1870, $12,047; 

 1871, $17,275.53. 



The highest stock ever made from a single trip of fresh halibut, until recently, was that of 

 schooner N. H. Phillips, Capt. William McDonald, in the fall of 1871. She secured a fare of 47,650 

 pounds of halibut and 9,370 pounds of codfish. The gross stock amounted to $5,361. She was 

 absent five weeks, aud the crew shared $213.42 each. In two trips, both occupying nine weeks, 

 she stocked a total of $9,142, and the men shared $363.42 each. 



"The largest amount of halibut ever received in Gloucester in a single week was for the 

 week ending February 10, 1881, when the receipts were 740,000 pounds from the Banks and 

 122,509 pounds from George's, 862,500 pounds."* 



10. HISTORY OF THE FEESH-HALIBUT FISHERY. 



THE EARLY HALIBUT FISHERY ON GEORGE'S. In the early part of the present century 

 halibut were exceedingly abundant in Massachusetts Bay, and were considered by the fishermen 

 to be troublesome pests, as are dogfish at the present time. Their abundance, even as late as 

 1837, may be judged from the following account of a fishing trip in the bay quoted from the 

 Newburyport Herald by the Gloucester Telegraph of June 3, 1837: "Four men went out fishing 

 from Marblehcad a few days since, aud returned, after an absence of two days, with four hundred 

 halibut, for which they obtained $1.50 each, or nearly $600." The Gloucester Telegraph of March 

 22, 1837, contains the following, which is additional evidence of the occasional abundance of halibut 

 near the coast: "Our hardy fishermen," says the account, "have been unusually successful in their 

 pursuit of this noble fish [halibut] within the past week or two. One boat, we are informed, during 

 an absence of only two days, took 15,000 weight." 



The fishiug vessels of Cape Ann at that period were mostly pinkies, or "jiggers," and chebacco 

 boats, or "dog-bodies," as they were then called; and it was the practice of the fishermen, when 



"Fisherman's Own Book, p. 30. 



