160 FISHERMEN OF THE imiTED STATES. 



charge of the vessel. First I went to Chatham and foimd nothing, and then went into Massachu- 

 setts Bay and fished on Middle Bank, and in about three weeks got a trip of 160 barrels. We 

 went into Boston and packed them out. We fished a second trip in the bay, between Cape Cod 

 and Cape Ann, and caught about 150 barrels more. At the end of the season, 1834, we hauled the 

 vessel up. 



I sailed in the schooner Lucy Mary on the 28th of April, 1835, for the Grand Bank, and was 

 absent 11 weeks and 3 days, obtaining 600 quintals of fish. The Lucy Mary measured 59 tons O. 

 M. (about 38 N. M.) We carried three sharesmen, and three men and a cook, hired at a cheap rate, 

 and made $200 to a share. On our return we landed our fish, which could not be cured at that 

 time of year, salted them in kenches, and put them in the store to wait for cold weather. After 

 this we fitted for mackerel fishing in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. We shipped one more shares- 

 man and sailed August 2, fished for a while about the Magdalen Islands, and returned home about 

 the middle of October with 180 barrels of mackerel. We fished for the rest of the season for cod 

 and mackerel in Massachusetts Bay, making $220 after the 2d of August. After the end of the 

 season we carried our codfish and mackerel to Boston and sold them, the codfish selling for $2.75, 

 the mackerel for $7 and $8. I spent the winter at home. I didn't feel like going fishing, and 

 went to building dories, which, at this time, were just coming into use. (See account of dory busi- 

 ness elsewhere.) 



In 1836 I was still in the Lucy Mary, my brother, John Atwood, master, and we started in 

 the spring for the Grand Bank. We sailed the last of April, and after a short passage of six 

 days anchored on the Grand Bank. In the first two or three weeks we caught between 4,000 and 

 5,000 fish. Then it came on to blow heavy from the north and northeast. We were at an anchor, 

 and as many as twenty vessels — square-rigged French brigs and American schooners, all catching 

 some fish — were around us. The blow lasted nine days, and when it was over there was not a 

 vessel in sight, all having drifted away or been obliged to change their berths. The wind brought 

 down hundreds of great icebergs, which were floating all around us. We got our anchor and ran 

 for the eastern end of the Bank, but we met a vessel which said that it was full of ice there, so we 

 ran to the north, and there, on the edge of the Bank, between latitude 45° and 46°, through the 

 whole voyage, when it was clear, we could see twenty icebergs or more floating all around us. We 

 were frightened almost to death all the time, particularly when the fog shut down thick, but none 

 of them came foul of us. The ice was there as long as we were. When we got home we had been 

 gone eleven weeks and three days, and had on board 572 quintals of fish. This year my brother 

 and I had fitted the vessel and hired the whole crew, paying $18 apiece a month for three men, 

 $16 for one, and $8 for a cook. We made $460 to a share. On our arrival home we discharged 

 all our crew, and my brother and I landed all our fish ourselves and put them in salt. Then we 

 got on board the salt and the barrels and everything for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. We sailed 

 on the 1st of August, and on our arrival we could not hear of any mackerel being caught. We spoke 

 vessels from Bank Bradley and Prince Edward's Island and Ga8p6, but they all said there was no 

 fishing. So we bore up and went to the Magdalens. When we got there we found that they had 

 been catching mackerel the day before off Black Land, near Tantenore, off the northwest coast. 

 So the next day we went down there. We found nothing till we got to the east end, and there we 

 caught a few. The wind blew up to the northwest heavy and drove us around to the west of the 

 island, where we anchored under the lee. The next day the weather moderated, and then we could 

 get no mackerel at all. Then we bore up and went to Newfoundland. We went as far as Port 

 au Port, and never caught a mackerel— not a mackerel. Then we went back to the Magdalens 

 as quick as we could get back, and fished there for the rest of the voyage. We returned home 



