FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS. 
Part VI, 
OpeN DeErp SEA FisHING. 
By F. O. Gapspen, R. I. M. 
(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 10th July, 1900.) 
In this, which I propose shall be the concluding article of this series, I 
intend drawing the attention of my readers to some fishing which can only 
be indulged in on the deep sea,away from land, and generally speaking 
must be carried on when the vessel is travelling at a fair speed. Although 
numbers of large fish inhabit the open ocean, still often times in travelling, 
you may go for days and see no sign of life, unless it be an occasional 
flying fish or a lone whale blowing ; while on the other hand, if the weather 
be propitious, very often in some latitudes andin some seas not a day 
passes, but what numbers of the larger ocean mackarels, such as albicore, 
benito, tunny and dolphins and porpoises, are seen sometimes in considerable 
numbers, and occasionaliy they will come round and play quite close to the 
ship. In the good old days of sailing ships, when things were taken easier 
all round, men on the ships used to lay themselves out to catch them, but 
nowadays when steamers so largely predominate, and when the tendency 
is to rush and scurry, to get from one port to another as quickly as possible, 
these quiet chances do not so often occur ; and however willing the master 
of a mail steamer might be to indulge in the pastime himself, or give his 
passengers a chance of doing so, still the fact of his vessel being a steamer 
and expected to do the voyage in a given time is greatly against him, The 
noise caused by a steamer, the thud, thud, thud, caused by the screw, with the 
accompanying vibration transmitted to the surrounding water, as she goes 
at full speed, tends to frighten away any fish that may be near, who cannot 
understand what all this commotion may mean, so different isit to the 
quite lapping kissing noise caused by the stately sailing ship as she lazily 
rolls on her way, dipping every now and again her bows into the sparkling 
sea, and shaking off the feathery spray as she rises, behaving in many ways 
as if she were a light hearted gambolling leviathan herself. It has been my © 
fate in life to have had experiences of both steam and sailing ships, Asa 
boy I served some time in a crack sailing ship belonging to a Northern Line 
and running in the Colonial trade, and many years later, after having been 
for years in steamers of all sizes, I was appointed to and served for about 
two years ina small paddle steamer, and our sole duty there was marine 
surveying, and in these two ships more than in any others I had several 
and varied opportunities of seeing this deep sea fishing carried out and made 
acquaintance with many wonders of the deep. 
I do not know that anybody has dealt at all in detail with this class of 
fishing, and it is impossible for me here to go very fully into the matter, 
In the sea-fishing volume of the Badminton Library there is described very 
