SALT-HALIBUT FISHERY. 91 



when encouraged by prospects of making money, what other result can be predicted than a con- 

 siderable growth of this branch of the fisheries. 



OUTLINE HISTORY. The salting of halibut was doubtless begun by the cod-fishermen as an 

 experiment, and then continued for the winter food of their families. These fishermen, though 

 finding the halibut so plentiful as to interfere considerably with the" catching of cod, did not prize 

 them much as a food-fish, and as there was no demand in the market for them, the quantity cured 

 was at first very small. So gradual was the growth of the custom that it would hardly be possible 

 to trace it back to its commencement or to state whenjsalt halibut first came into the market, but 

 from the practice of the fishermen of Marblehead and of other places of salting these fish for winter 

 consumption no doubt arose the market value of salted halibut. 



We find that about 1842, before the introduction of ice-houses on board the fishing vessels, it 

 was customary to bring flitched halibut from George's Bank, and that from 1845 to 1850 the Grand 

 Bank cod-fishing vessels from Beverly, Proviucetown, and other places were in the habit of sending 

 flitched halibut to the Boston market, to be there sold as "dried halibut." Since 1850, however, 

 the demand for smoked halibut has been so great that all the salted halibut have been bought for 

 smoking, and there has been no dried halibut in market. 



From 1850 to 1863 or 1864 the halibut brought in by the cod-fishermen, and by the fresh-halibut 

 fleet were sufficient to meet the demand of the smoked-halibut trade, and the fitting out of vessels 

 for salting halibut was resorted to in only one or two instances. 



Perhaps the first trip of this nature was made by Capt. Chester Marr, in the schooner Grace 

 Darling. He says: 



"I went on a Hitching trip to the Canadian shore about 1858. I had heard from the mackerel 

 fishermen that halibut were very plentiful about Magdalene Eiver in the summer. I was in the 

 Grace Darling, and I hauled the vessel into the river, moored, and fished in our dories, setting the 

 trawls along the shore in the vicinity for six weeks. I was induced to stay so long by the native 

 fishermen, who made exaggerated statements concerning the halibut. I got only about 100 quintals 

 of salt halibut, and gave up the trip and went to the Bay and filled up with mackerel." 

 The following is on the authority Of D. C. & H. Babson, of Gloucester: 



"The first vessel that ever sailed from Gloucester on a flitching halibut voyage to the Grand 

 Bank was the schooner A. J. Chapman, 105 tons, that sailed May 19, 1864, commanded by Capt. 

 George W. Minor. Arrived home August 13, and stocked en the trip $4,933.05. Her crew was com- 

 posed of eleven men, and they shared $223.59 each; captain's share and commission was $420.82." 

 The practice of sending out vessels to salt halibut, once commenced, has continued up to the 

 present time, but the vessels engaged in this way have ever been few, and at no time, according to 

 Mr. Wonson, of Gloucester, has the number for any year exceeded ten. 



Though the practice has been continued, the banks to which the vessels are sent have become 

 fewer and fewer, until for several years past the banks in Davis' Strait have been the only ones 

 visited by these vessels. 



THE GROWTH OF THE GREENLAND HALIBUT FISHERY. Eeports of the abundance of halibut 

 off the west coast of Greenland were first brought to Massachusetts by Provincetown whalers. The 

 first trip to Greenland after these fish was made in 1866, by the schooner John Atwood. She sailed 

 June 29 and returned October 14, stocking $5,500. Capt. G. P. Pomeroy, of New London, went 

 as navigator, and Capt, Averill L. York, of Gloucester, as fishing-master. Though she failed to fill 

 her hold only because of her late arrival upon the fishing banks, no enthusiasm was excited in this 

 fishery until Capt. John McQuiun, in 1870, brought from Greenland a trip of flitched halibut worth 

 over $19,000. Each of the two or three succeeding years five or six vessels, with hopes of having 



