22 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



or " stewards," and are often found serving in tliat capacity. On shore they live in little homes 

 of their own, bmlt together in small communities, they mingling scarcely at all with their Ameri- 

 can neighbors, and rarely, if ever, going out to service. Men are absent in summer at sea, and in 

 the winter engage in the shore fisheries. The women and children contribute to the general pros- 

 perity by gathering berries and beach plums for sale, and by small household industries. In Prov- 

 incetown they are rather looked down upon and avoided by the native population, but this is appar- 

 ently the result of race prejudice, for they are honest and unobtrusive. They are always self-sup- 

 porting and often well-to-do. At sea the men are recognized as equals by their shipmates, and 

 there are few vessels which have not among their crews some " Manuel" or "Antone " who talks a 

 dialect of Latin-English and serves as a stimulant to ethnological speculations among his shipmates. 

 The women are not so much in intercourse with Americans as the men, and usunlly speak English 

 with difficTilty. They are always devout Catholics and make up at Provincetown and Gloucester 

 a large part of the congregation in the churches of this sect. 



Of late years a number of Portuguese have become skippers of Gloucester vessels and part 

 owners as well. There was formerly a prejudice against allowing them to take these positions, but 

 this is now vanishing. A Portuguese skipper rarely has any but Portuguese in his crew. As a 

 class they seem to prefer the George's cod fishery to the other fisheries, more than two-thirds of 

 all the Portuguese fishermen of Gloucester in 1879 being in the George's fleet. 



10. THE NEGRO FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Neg-eoes as whalemen. — New England has few negro fishermen except in its whaling fleet, 

 though occasionally one is found serving as cook on a cod or mackerel schooner. In 1880 there . 

 was not a negro among the 4,500 men in the Gloucester fleet. 



The whaling fleet of New Bedford has among its crews many negroes, some shipped in the 

 West Indies, others picked up at Zanzibar and other recruiting stations. In 1880 tjiere were two 

 hundred negroes in the fleet. 



The Provincetown whalers often ship a part of their crew at Jamaica, St. Croix, or other of 

 the West India Islands. These negroes are rarely of mixed blood, and are active, powerful men, 

 speaking a patois hardly to be understood even by those who are familiar with the speech of the 

 negroes of their own States. Negroes sometimes attain to the position of boat-steerer, but I have 

 been unable to learn of instances where they have become captains or even mates. 



11. THE "BATMEN" OR FISHERTIEN OF LONG ISLAND. 



The habits op "batmen." — The character of the fisheries of Long Island, New York, is 

 such that it is a most diflcult matter to determine how many men are professionally engaged in 

 them. The men who fish are also by times oystermen, farmers, clammers, yachtsmen, and gunners, 

 following either of these occupations as they may feel at different times inclined. On the south 

 shore, and in some other parts, they style themselves "baymen." Many of them own yachts of 

 from 3 to 20 tons, are good sailors, and keep their boats neatly painted, so that when taking out 

 parties of anglers to fish for bluefish or other fishes their boat would hardly be thought to have 

 been engaged in oystering most of the winter. This class of men are very numerous in all parts, 

 and while individually they take but few fish, collectively their catch amounts to considerable in 

 the course of the year. These " baymen" get from $3 to $5 per day for sailing a party, and usually 

 get all the fish, although they do not demand it as part of the contract, as is the case at some places 

 on the New Jersey coast. 



