34 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



demaiid about 1830. Capt. Harry Pew, in the piiikey Borneo, and Capt. John F. Wonsou, in the 

 Nautilus, went in the same year (1830), but he is uncertain which went first. At that time halibut 

 were beginning to be scarce in Massachusetts Bay, and as there was always a small demand for 

 them in the Boston markets, vessels began to go to George's after them. The first adventurers 

 went iu March, but others soon began to go in January. Quite a fleet grew up after two or three 

 years, and in 1848 there were sixty-five vessels which brought halibut to the Gloucester Halibut 

 Company, which was started in January of that year, and continued in business until the last of 

 April, when it suspended operations, the supply exceeding the demand a hundred fold. Sometimes 

 there would be twenty vessels, each with 30,000 or 60,000 pounds of halibut in its hold lying at the 

 halibut company's wharf, waiting to unload, while there was no possible sale for any. In warm 

 weather the whole fleet went after mackerel, starting about the 4th of July for the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence. There were certain favorite grounds for the halibut fishing. They used first to make 

 the shoals of George's and then run southeast until they struck the southern slope of the Bank 

 sounding, and "trying" as they went. 



Captain Marr is of the opinion that the first trips to George's after halibut were made in 1828. 

 Capt. John F. Wonson, he says, went in March of that year, and Capt. Harry Pew went at about 

 the same time. 



Captain Marr first went in March and April, 1832. As early as 1834, vessels were accustomed 

 to make their first trips to the Banks after halibut about the 1st of January. For bait they used 

 herring, which they caught in gill-nets on the Banks. 



EAKLY HALIBUT FISHING BY NEW LONDON VESSELS. Many New London vessels came to 

 George's as early as 1840. These were small sloops, each with a crew of four men. The following 

 statements relative to the early history of the halibut fishery pursued by the New London vessels 

 have been obtained from Mr. Tripland. He says that when well-smacks were first employed in 

 the halibut fishery from the sound ports the fish were caught with hand-lines from the decks of the 

 vessels and immediately put in the well. The halibut were gaffed carefully in the under jaw so 

 that they would not be injured enough to cause their death. A stout iron gaff (J inch iron) 2 to 

 3 feet long, with an eye at the top, was used to gaff wild or large halibut, which were hoisted on 

 board by a tackle hooked into the eye of the gaff. Shovel-handled gaffs, he says, were also used 

 for pulling in halibut, as well as a few with long handles made of saplings. 



The few halibut that died were iced, but little money was, however, realized from the sale of 

 these. While live fish brought 6 or 7 cents a pound in the market, those which were dead were 

 not worth more than 1 cent to 1 cents a pound, and it frequently happened that a whole fish sold 

 for a very insignificant sum. 



Twenty-five to thirty years ago a full fare of halibut could often be taken on George's in two 

 or three slack tides with a crew of five men, all told. A fare for the New London vessels of that 

 date would be about 150 to 200 fish, of an average weight of 80 pounds. Halibut were then also 

 abundant about Nantucket shoals in spring and early summer, say from March to July, in from 7 

 to 35 fathoms of water. On George's the sound vessels generally fished in 45 to 50 fathoms, except 

 when they tried about the Great Southwest Shoal anil the Cultivator Shoal, when they generally 

 fished in 10 to 15 fathoms. The halibut taken about the shoals were not so large as those caught 

 in deeper water, therefore the smackmen did not like to fish there, more particularly as more or 

 less danger was attached to being in too close proximity to those shoals. 



When trawling began, about 1858, tight-bottomed vessels were substituted for the well smacks. 

 The smack George Moon was the last welled vessel employed in halibut fishing from the sound 

 ports and on her last trips her well was plugged up. But though tb e vessels exclusively employed 



