34 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
demand about 1830. Capt. Harry Pew, in the pinkey Romeo, and Capt. John F. Wonson, in the 
Nautilus, went in the same year (1830), but he is uncertain which went first. At that time halibut 
were beginning to be scarce in Massachusetts Bay, and as there was always a small demand for 
them in the Boston markets, vessels began to go to George’s after them. The first adventurers 
went in March, but others soon began to go in January. Quite a fleet grew up after two or three 
years, and in 1848 there were sixty-five vessels which brought halibut to the Gloucester Halibut 
Company, which was started in January of that year, and continued in business until the last of 
April, when it suspended operations, the supply exceeding the demand a hundred fold. Sometimes 
there would be twenty vessels, each with 30,000 or 60,000 pounds of halibut in its hold lying at the 
halibut company’s wharf, waiting to unload, while there was no possible sale for any. In warm 
weather the whole fleet went after mackerel, starting about the 4th of July for the Gulf of Saint 
Lawrence. There were certain favorite grounds for the halibut fishing. They used first to make 
the shoals of George’s and then run southeast until they struck the southern slope of the Bank 
sounding, and “trying” as they went. 
Captain Marr is of the opinion that the first trips to George’s after halibut were made in 1828, 
Capt. John F. Wonson, he says, went in March of that year, and Capt. Harry Pew went at about 
the same time. 
Captain Marr first went in March and April, 1832. As early as 1834, vessels were accustomed 
to make their first trips to the Banks after halibut about the 1st of January. For bait they used 
herring, which they caught in gill-nets on the Banks. 
EARLY HALIBUT FISHING BY NEW LONDON VESSELS.—Many New London vessels came to 
George’s as early as 1840. These were small sloops, each with a crew of four men. The following 
statements relative to the early history of the halibut fishery pursued by the New London vessels 
have been obtained from Mr. Tripland. He says that when well-smacks were first employed in 
the halibut fishery from the sound ports the fish were caught with hand-lines from the decks of the 
vessels and immediately put in the well. The halibut were gaffed carefully in the under jaw so 
that they would not be injured enough to cause their death. A stout iron gaff (4-inch iron) 24 to 
3 feet long, with an eye at the top, was used to gaff wild or large halibut, which were hoisted on 
board by a tackle hooked into the eye of the gaff. Shovel-handled gaffs, he says, were also used 
for pulling in halibut, as well as a few with long handles made of saplings. 
The few halibut that died were iced, but little money was, however, realized from the sale of 
these. While live fish brought 6 or 7 cents a pound in the market, those which were dead were 
not worth more than 1 cent to 14 cents a pound, and it frequently happened that a whole fish sold 
for a very insignificant sum. 
Twenty-five to thirty years ago a full fare of halibut could often be taken on George’s in two 
or three slack tides with a crew of five men, all told. A fare for the New London vessels of that 
date would be about 150 to 200 fish, of an average weight of 80 pounds. Halibut were then also 
abundant about Nantucket shoals in spring and early summer, say from March to July, in from 7 
to 35 fathoms of water. On George’s the sound vessels generally fished in 45 to 50 fathoms, except 
when they tried about the Great Southwest Shoal and the Cultivator Shoal, when they generally 
fished in 10 to 15 fathoms. The halibut taken about the shoals were not so large as those caught 
in deeper water, therefore the smackmen did not like to fish there, more particularly as more or 
less danger was attached to being in too close proximity to those shoals. 
When trawling began, about 1858, tigh t- bottomed vessels were substituted for the well smacks. 
The smack George Moon was the last welled vessel employed in halibut fishing from the sound 
ports and on her last trips her well was plugged up. But though the vessels exclusively employed 
