ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. £37 
Champion; in 1878, the schooner Northern Eagle; while in 
1879 and 1880 the field is abandoned by this port. 
FINANCIAL PROFITS TO FISHERMEN. 
I have before me the record of a single schooner for the sea- 
son of 1878, from which it appears that in the season of four 
months eight trips were made, averaging about twelve days in 
continuance. One hundred and sixty-three fish were taken be- 
tween June 8th and September 20th, weighing in the aggregate, 
in round numbers, about 47,000 pounds, dressed. These were 
sold at an average price of three cents per pound. The 
gross stock of the season would amount to about $1,300. From 
this must be deducted the expense of living, the interest on cap- 
ital invested, and the wages of the cook and the boy. The re- 
mainder would probably not exceed eight or nine hundred dol- 
lars, and the profits have to be divided among the two or three 
men composing the crew and the owner of the vessel. It is not 
probable that many vessels stock as large a proportionate 
amount as did the Northern Eagle. The success of one New 
Bedford vessel in the season of 1878 was spoken of as extraor- 
dinary, the return being $311 to each of the crew’s share. 
The price of swordfish is low, and the success of the voyage is 
always somewhat precarious. A few small vessels with expe- 
rienced skippers apparently succeed in making a fair living, 
but that the profits are not great is clearly indicated by the fact 
that there is no great increase in the number of vessels engaged, 
and that so many are constantly undertaking and abandoning 
the swordfishery. 
HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN SWORDFISHERY. 
There are few data on which to found conjecture as to the 
time when the swordfish came to be regarded as sufficiently use- 
ful to be sought for by fishermen. One of the earliest records 
of its use for food is found in the Barnstable Pa¢riot, of June 
30th, 1841, in which it is stated that the fishermen of the island 
south of Cape Cod take a considerable number of these fish 
every year by harpooning them, and that about two hundred 
pounds a year are pickled and salted at Martha’s Vineyard. 
