FRESH-HALIBUT FISHERY. 5 
Considerable quantities of halibut were also taken in the vicinity of Cape North, Cape Breton, 
as previously mentioned, chiefly, however, by the cod fishermen, who flitched and salted them. 
Prior to 1874 the fresh-halibut fishery was, as a rule, carried on in water from 20 to 75 fathoms 
deep, though the fish taken off Pass Island, Newfoundland, were caught in 160 fathoms. 
In 1873 Capt. John Dago, while on a “salt trip,” caught a large number of halibut on the 
extreme southern part of the Grand Bank, in 160 fathoms of water. His vessel was anchored in’ 
130 fathoms, in latitude 42° 57’ north, and longitude 50° 28’ west. He had previously taken 
halibut on the Flemish Cap, while fishing for cod, in a depth of 100 to 120 fathoms. He claims 
to have been the first to fish for halibut in deep water on the Grand Bank. 
In 1874 the schooner G. G. Kidder, as well as a number of vessels engaged in the salt-halibut 
fishery, being anchored in about 70 or 80 fathoms on the western slope of the Grand Bank, found 
that the halibut. shifted their position slowly, going in a westerly direction, and that, after a day 
or two, the best fishing was obtained on the trawls which were set in the deepest water. This, 
therefore, induced the captains to change their positions, so they moved out into 90 or 100 fathoms. 
This was the beginning of a change in the method of fishing on the Banks. In the spring of 1875 
the fresh halibut vessels were driven from the shoal water of the bank by drifting field-ice, and 
one of them having anchored in a depth of 83 fathoms, found good fishing on trawls which were 
set still farther out, and as a result the vessels in that vicinity anchored in a depth of water 
varying from 110 to 140 fathoms and made excellent catches. 
Although fares of fresh halibut had been previously taken at a depth of 160 fathoms near Pass 
Island, in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, and Captain Dago had, during the previous season, 
obtained part of a fare of flitches in a similar depth on the southern extremity of the Grand Bank i 
this was practically the beginning of the deep-water fishing for this species on the banks, and 
since that time the halibut fishermen have been setting their trawls farther and farther down upon 
the edge of the continental slope, and fares have been caught in waters as deep as 400 fathoms, the 
vessels being anchored in depths varying from 200 to 275 fathoms, and, in one instance, in no less 
than 315 fathoms. There is no other food-fish fishery in the world in which fish are sought at so 
greats depth, and for no other purpose are vessels habitually anchored in such deep water. An 
extraordinary instance of deep-water fishing may be cited here, the case of the schooner Davy 
Crockett, of Gloucester, which, it is said, on one occasion, in the winter of 1878; set trawls in 600 
or 700 fathoms of water on the western slope of the Grand Bank, in latitude 43° 30’, and caught 
many halibut. 
Prior to the extensive halibut fishery on George’s Bank, which was carried on from 1830 to 
1850, the species were very abundant in Massachusetts Bay and off Cape Cod, so much so as to be 
sometimes regarded as a decided nuisance by cod fishermen, and before 1830 those who wished to 
catch halibut had no difficulty in finding an abundant supply within a few miles of shore. They 
were gradually exterminated in the bay, the history of which, together with an account of the 
vessels betaking themselves to George’s Bank for the capture of halibut, will be presented later, 
in the paragraph upon the history of the early halibut fisheries. 
Though a fleet of Connecticut vessels have long pursued the halibut fishery, they rarely have 
gone to the distant grounds, north and east of La Have Bank, but for many years they have 
engaged in fishing along the southern and western coasts of Nova Scotia. 
~ 38. THE FISHERMEN. 
The fishermen employed upon the halibut schooners are chosen men, and a man is seldom 
shipped on board of one of these vessels who is not well known or at least recommended as a good 
