THE MACKEREL PURSE-SEINE FISHERY. 249 



winter fishing, and substituting chain cables. This change is not necessary in the case of many 

 of the Cape Cod and Portland vessels which are employed in the oyster trade, or in the case of 

 most of the Gloucester vessels engaged in the herring trade, since these use only chain cables at 

 any season. (3) By the removal of gurry-pens, and all other incumbrances from the deck. (4) By 

 the rigging of a seine-roller upon the port-quarter rail. This is a wooden roller almost invariably 

 made of spruce, 6 inches in diameter, and 9 to 10 feet long, which revolves on pivots in its ends, 

 received into iron sockets in cleats, which are fastened to the rail. The forward end of the roller 

 is about 3 feet aft of the main rigging. The use of this. roller is to lessen the friction between the 

 rail of the vessel and the seine, as the latter is being hauled on deck or overhauled into the boat.* 

 (5) By the head-box being fastened to the forward end of the house. The head-box is a bin 10 or 

 12 feet long, and wide enough to receive the head of a fish-barrel. In this box are stowed the 

 heads of the barrels that happen to be on deck. (6) By placing the bait-mill on deck, and fastening 

 the bait-box (when one is used) to the main rigging on the starboard side. (7) By nailing boards to 

 the top timbers underneath the main rail, between the fore and main rigging ; these are about 6 

 inches iu width, and are provided with single ropes, or stoppers, 2 or 3 feet apart; the object of 

 these stoppers is to hold the cork rope of the seine when brought over the rail, preparatory to 

 bailing the fish from the seine upon the deck. (8) By taking on board an ice-grinder, these being 

 used only on vessels which carry their fish fresh to market. (9) By clearing the hold of all bulk- 

 heads, ice-houses, or other appliances, which may have been used in the course of the winter's 

 fishery. (10) By properly adjusting the quantity of ballast ; if the vessel has been in the haddock 

 or George's fishery, ballast must be removed; if in the herring trade, ballast must be added; a 

 mackerel schooner of 60 tons will carry from 15 to 20 tons of ballast, and in exceptional cases 

 somewhat more. (11) By constructing an ice-house on those vessels which intend to take their 

 fish fresh to market, somewhat similar to that on board the halibut vessels;! and (12) by taking 

 on board the necessary supply of barrels, f Vessels which take their fish fresh to market carry 

 from 175 to 250 barrels; those intending to salt their fish carry from 175 to 500 barrels, about 

 one third of this number being filled with salt, which is used in curing the fish, and serves in the 

 meantime as ballast. 



*Capt. George Merchant, jr., of Gloucester, Mass., states that purse-seines were used by the fishermen of that 

 port for six or seven years before "seine-rollers" were put on the vessel's rails. This useful implement was first 

 invented and used by Capt. Simeon Tarr, of Gloucester, about the year 1857, while he was in command of the pinkey 

 Andes. 



+ The mackerel schooner's ice-house, as a rule, occupies the middle portion of the hold, extending from side to 

 side of the vessel one way, and from the grub beam to the forward side of the main hatch the other way. It is 

 separated from the other sections of the hold by bulkheads, and is divided into a number of pens similar to those in 

 the ice-house of a halibut schooner. Each of these pens is subdivided into three parts by shelves, which are con- 

 structed, when occasion requires, by laying some boards crosswise, the ends resting on cleats which are nailed to the 

 sides of the pens. The first shelf is put in about 15 inches above the floor of the ice-house, and a second shelf 15 

 inches above the first. The front of the pens are closed by boards which slide in grooves on the stanchions or bulk- 

 heads. The mackerel are iced 15 inches deep on the floor of the pen, after which the first shelf is laid and another 

 tier of the same depth is put on that. After the second shelf is put in, the fish are iced on it nearly to the deck, a 

 covering of ice being put over all. In this way the fish can be kept in a better condition than if they were packed in 

 a large bulk. If stowed in bulk the fish are jammed and soon become worthless. An average sized ice-house has a 

 capacity of about 200 barrels of fresh mackerel ; some ice-houses will hold 300 barrels. 



Capt. Joseph Smith, of Gloucester, tells us that at present few of the mackerel vessels carry ice-grinders, since 

 the fishermen prefer to use the ice-pick instead. Each vessel employed in market fishing is provided with from two 

 to four ice-picks, and three men can pick up ice fast enough to supply a whole crew, even if they should ice 100 

 barrels or more an hour, which is about the average speed with which mackerel are taken care of. Captain Smith 

 thinks his crew, on one occasion, iced 300 barrels in an hour and a half. About 4 tons of ice are put on 100 barrels of 

 fresh mackerel. 



t Vessels which carry a mackerel pocket or "spiller" are provided with outriggers on the starboard side and 

 other necessary arrangements for its proper management. All of the seiners also have an outrigger on the port side, 

 near the fore rigging, to which to fasten the seine-boat. 



