272 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



The schooner Niagara was the first to provide herself with a seine in 18G4, and another was 

 bought and owned by two small vessels, the Wild Rose and the Neptune, one carrying the seiue 

 and the other salt and barrels for curing the fish. This plan did not work well and was soon 

 abandoned. The schooner Niagara did well from the start, and has always been high line of the 

 seiners for this region. 



Georgetown sent one seiner, the Coquimbo, in 1865, and a little later the schooner Sunbeam, 

 Captain McMann, but they met with poor success, and no seiners have been sent since from that 

 port. 



Westport has made two attempts at introducing seining, the first in 1872, by schooner Jennie 

 Armstrong, Capt. B. F. Jewett, and the second a three-masted schooner of 350 tons, the George W. 

 Jewett, Capt. A. M. Jewett, carrying two seines and crews, in 1875. Both vessels did very poorlj 

 and gave up the business after the first season. 



10. THE ATTEMPTED USE OF THE PURSE SEINE IN NORWEGIAN WATERS. 



In 1878 a Gloucester vessel essayed fishing for mackerel with a purse-seine on the coast of 

 Norway. In April the schooner Notice, Capt. Knud Markuson, departed on this mission, taking 

 a crew of twelve men and the most approved seining apparatus. It was remarked by a writer in 

 the Deutsche Fischerei Zeitung of July: 



" The mackerel fishermen, who have till now been in the habit of plying their trade in open 

 but suitable boats, are, however, greatly agitated at the present moment in consequence of the 

 arrival at Risor, some three weeks ago, of an American fishing smack, direct from Gloucester, in 

 North America, understood to be followed by a whole fishing fleet from New England, to take part 

 in the mackerel fishery outside the Norwegian fishing territorium. As all these American smacks 

 are reported as provided with bag or purse nets, by means of which they are enabled to catch more 

 fish upon one single haul than ten Norwegian boats during a whole day, it is obvious that the 

 Norwegian fishermen will have to discard their old mode of fishing, and to have recourse to the 

 American fishing method, if they do not want to lose all the advantages enjoyed till now. The 

 mackerel fishery has always been of great importance to Norway, some 7,000,000 of these fish 

 being on the average caught annually, of which number about 70,000 centners, at a value of from 

 600,000 to 700,000 crowns, are exported. The Government is well aware of the danger threatening 

 the public weal, and has consequently taken every possible measure in order to prevent such 

 disastrous results as the loss by the Norwegian fishermen of the mackerel fishery. A most accu- 

 rate description of the nets used by the Americans has been printed, and, with a great number ot 

 nets of this kind, made to order by the net manufactory at Bergen, distributed among the fishing 

 population. Models of the different sorts of the fast-sailing American boats have also been obtained 

 through the Norwegian consul at Gloucester, Mass., direct from the manufacturers of such boats. 

 The well-known industry and activity of the Norwegian fishermen, combined with the efforts of the 

 Government, will, no doubt, enable them not oirly successfully to hold but to improve their owu 

 prospects as regards the mackerel fishery by the timely adoption of the American methods and 

 arrangements of fishing."* 



The venture was, however, not a successful one. On his return home Captain Markuson 

 stated that he had been unable to use the seine advantageously, owing to the fact that the mack- 

 erel did not in those waters school together in large bodies, as they do along the New England 

 shores. 



* Cape Ann Advertiser, August 9, 1878. 



