158 FISHBRMBN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



at Cape Canso we were short of provisions, but I supposed we would not be more than a week, but 

 we were fifteen days, so we were half starved when we got home. After landing our fish we fitted 

 for the mackerel fishery, and I was employed in that until the middle of November, 1828. In the 

 winter I engaged in the winter fishing in the same vessel. We went to the north shore off Lynn 

 and remained there six weeks. I made $12. We came home and the vessel was laid up until the 

 next season. 



By going four months out of the nine, exclusive of the winter, we obtained a bounty at the 

 rate of $4 a ton on the vessel's measurement. We commenced early in March and fished until 

 about the 1st of June for codfish ; after which we engaged in the mackerel fishery until Novem- 

 ber on the coast of Maine and Massachusetts. Then we went bounty catching about a week or ten 

 days. We called it bounty catching because we shouldn't have gone if it hadn't been for the 

 bounty. After spending the winter at home I was still in the Missouri, and in the spring engaged 

 in the halibut fishery along the shores of Cape Cod and Nantucket Shoals. At that time it took 

 only a small quantity to glut the Boston market with halibut. The most we got was 3 cents a_ 

 pound. I have carried 2,000 weight, and when I got to Boston would let them (the dealers) come 

 into the hold and pick out 1,000 weight which I would sell for half a cent a pound and throw the 

 rest overboard. Some vessels could'nt sell their cargoes at all. The reason of this was because 

 Boston was small in population. Ice never had been used for icing halibut ; but was used only in 

 the city of Boston, and that was as far as they could be carried without ice. Gloucester was not 

 engaged in the halibut fishery at the time, so that we, particularly Wellfleet, supplied the Boston 

 market with halibut. The halibut season commenced in March and lasted until July. When 

 mackerel got fat there was no sale for halibut. 



Early in June, 1830, we fitted for the mackerel fishery. We went first off about the vicinity 

 of Cashe's Ledge and fished from there to Mount Pleasant Rock. We got a trip of 100 barrels 

 and were absent four weeks. I think we made $30 to a share. Jhere were three men, including 

 myself, and two boys on board. It was the custom of mackerel vessels to carry stone ballast in the 

 bottom and stow the barrels on the top of the stones. We threw out the stones and only took in 

 and headed up 12 barrels of stone, and stowed the vessel full of empty barrels and salt. 



We sailed from Provincetown the 1st day of August. On the following day, at 9 p. m.. it com- 

 menced to blow a gale from the northeast. We were just near the western edge of George's Bank. 

 It blew so hard the vessel could hardly stand up, and lay over on her side, and we were pretty 

 scared. The gale moderated, however, the next morning. When we had been out a week we had 2J 

 barrels. The vessels fitted out for short voyages, from one to six weeks. When we were out two 

 weeks we had 16 barrels. It looked pretty blue. One-third of our time was gone and we had caught 

 only 16 barrels. We then ran eastward down off the coast of Grand Manan, and when three weeks 

 were out we had 60 barrels. Afterwards, for some ten days, we caught very few mackerel, and 

 proceeded westward. When off Mount Desert hills, bearing about northwest, we fell in with 

 plenty of mackerel and filled all our barrels. We arrived in Bostpn after an absence of about six 

 weeks, with 127J barrels. We had 83 barrels of No. 1, and the balance No. 2. There were only 

 about 2 barrels of No. 3, and we didn't pack them, but kept them for grind bait and toll bait. We 

 shared clear $103. We got about $6.50 for No. 1, and $5.50 for No. 2. Our outfits were very 

 light. The vessel drew one quarter. 



We then fished in Massachusetts Bay between Cape Cod and Cape Ann and got about 75 barrels, 

 which closed the year's fishing. We thought that was doing pretty well, and the owner wanted 

 me to leave the vessel and take a larger one. He bought a new vessel on the stocks for me, of 75 

 tons, but he had no written contract and the fellow backed out because the price raised and 



