288 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



uniformly of better quality. Many of the Gloucester mackerel-hookers were accustomed to divide 

 their crew into dressiug gangs of two each instead of three, as at the present time on the seining 

 vessels, one of these men splitting and the other gibbing. It was the duty of the splitter to get 

 the barrels, fill them with water, and, when he had split more fish than the gibber could take care 

 of, to aid the latter in his work.* 



On the seining vessel, as we have seen, the mackerel are, in most cases, heaped on the deck; 

 on the mackerel-hookers, the fish were already in barrels, and the order of proceeding was slightly 

 different. The splitting-board was placed on the head of one of the " strike" barrels ; the fish were 

 taken out of the barrels, split, and thrown into the gib tub, where they were handled in the ordi- 

 nary manner. The process of gibbing having been completed, the fish were " plowed" and put 

 into the second barrel, which was filled with clean water. From this barrel they were changed 

 into the barrel in which they were salted. The process of salting is as follows : A barrel of mack- 

 erel is emptied out on deck; a "gib-keeler" is filled with salt; one of the men now throws the 

 mackerel into the "gib-keeler," while the other man "rubs" them in the salt by taking one in each 

 hand; the back of one is then placed to the flesh of the other, and they are thrown into the barrel 

 with the flesh side down. They are thus salted and packed away into barrels in successive layers, 

 each (with the exception of the bottom tier) with the flesh side down.! A barrel of large mackerel 

 can be salted in from five to ten minutes. 



In order to cure mackerel successfully very fine salt must be used, and every part of the fish 

 must be touched or it will spoil.! Careless salters sometimes leave "thumb-marks" where their 

 thumbs touch the fish during the process of salting, preventing the 'access of the salt. These fish 

 do not keep well. 



It was customary on the "hookers" to let the mackerel remain on deck for several days after 

 being salted, the length of time varying to a considerable extent, as it depended very much on the 

 amount of fish taken. When the mackerel were well struck, or after they had been salted from 

 two to five or six days, the barrels were "topped up" with fish, to make up for the shrinkage from 

 the first salting, after which they were carefully headed up and stowed in the hold. If the men 

 kept their catch separate, each one cut a private mark on the head of the barrel containing his 

 fish. As a rule, the mackerel were " stowed down" whenever 40 or 50 barrels had accumulated on 

 deck, but when fish were abundant and took the hook freely for several days in succession it often 

 happened that more than a hundred barrels of fish would be caught before any were put below. 



Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, informs us that the practice of salting mackerel was 

 inaugurated at Gloucester in 1818. Scituate fishermen had begun this practice somewhat earlier. 

 The methods of salting have not materially changed since that time. Previous to 1850 the vessels 



* The most general custom, perhaps, on the Gloucester vessels was to have two men in a gang, though this was 

 varied a good deal on different schooners. Some crews preferred dress gangs of three men each, while others sorae- 

 tiiiien had four men working together, one of them "passing up" the mackerel to the splitter. 



tTlie early method of packing them flesh up has been abandoned. 



f This is the case when the mackerel are " rubbed," Liverpool salt being almost wholly used, since Cadiz salt, 

 owing to its coarseness, has a tendency to tear or "ruck up " tho flesh of the fish and give them a ragged appearance, 

 Many of the Cape Cod fishermen, however, preferred to use Cadiz salt, believing it to l>e better for curing the fish 

 than Liverpool. Their manner of applying it was quite different from that which has been described. Each man 

 salted his own catch. Placing a wash-barrel of mackerel at his left hand, an empty barrel in front of him, :md with 

 a bucket or basket of salt at bis right, the fisherman rapidly transferred the fresh fish into the proper barrel, placing 

 each flesh up, and scattering over it with the right hand a sufficient quantity of salt. An expert can thus take care 

 of many more fish than any one unacquainted with the method would believe possible, though it is safe to say, 

 mackerel can bo handled more expeditiously by the process of rubbing, and for this reason the Cape Cod style of 

 salting has never come into favor at Capo Ann and on the coast of Maine. 



