FRESH-HALIBUT FISHERY. AT 
For several years that part of the Grand Bank between 44° and 44° 40’ N. latitude, and 51° and 
51° 30’ W. longitude, was a favorite resort for halibut catchers. At first, as has been stated, the 
halibut were found abundant, all the season, but after a few years they could be caught in large 
numbers only in winter and spring, when migrating across the Bank from east to west. On this 
ground Capt. William Thompson, in the Mary Carlisle, in March of 1871, caught the trip which gave 
the largest share to each one of the crew that has ever been made in the fresh-halibut business. 
The schooner White Fawn caught a fare of 44,000 pounds a few days later (starting from home 
March 31) in 43° 30' N. latitude and 50° 30’ W. longitude. 
The vessels continued to fish on the Western Bank and Grand Bank in winter and spring, 
changing to Saint Peter’s Bank and the inshore ground about Newfoundland, Labrador, and Anti- 
costi in summer, and back to the Grand Bank in autumn, until 1875, when the deep-water fisheries 
along the borders of the outer banks became for the first time generally understood by the fisher- 
men. In April of 1874 the schooner G. G. Kidder caught a good fare in 90 fathoms, about 44° 30/ 
N, latitude, on the western edge of the Grand Bank. The schooner Sarah H. Cressy was fishing 
near her on a flitching trip, and found halibut very plenty for a few days; but when they grew 
scarce, the vessels were not prepared with sufficient cable to follow the fish into deeper water, 
even had it been known they were there, which may be doubted, for it was generally believed 
then that when halibut passed beyond a certain depth they left the Bank. 
I went on a fresh-halibut trip to the Grand Bank in the schooner Ocean Belle in March, 1864, 
while the Howard was building. On that occasion we caught our trip of 55,000 pounds from 449° 
08’ to 44° 16’ N. latitude and from 51° 10’ to 51° 20’ W. longitude. We were absent from home 
four weeks, and each man shared within a few cents of $100. 
In the latter part of January, 1875, while in the Howard, I caught a good fare, for the season, 
on the same ground. The weather was very boisterous while we were on the Bank and on our 
passage home. A large part of our fare was caught by setting and hauling trawls at night. We 
were seventeen days on the home passage, which was the longest, hardest, and most fatiguing I 
ever made. We encountered on our way home a succession of westerly gales, which, with the 
severe cold of that winter, made it extremely difficult to get to the westward. As an instance of 
the great severity of the weather, it is only necessary to say that a first-class Beverly vessel, the 
schooner Sarah H. Putnam, which went to the Grand Bank that winter on a ‘‘fresh trip,” was forty- 
two days making the passage home. That is the only instance of a Beverly vessel being engaged 
in the fresh-halibut fishery of which I have any knowledge, and she made only one trip. We were 
detained from sailing on our second cruise that winter by easterly winds for two weeks or more, 
and when we reached the Grand Bank, about the 15th of March, the whole of it to the northward 
of 44° 25/ N. latitude was covered with heavy masses of field-ice. 
Two or three weeks previous to our arrival on the Bank halibut were very plenty in latitude 
44° 20/ to 44° 25’, in 50 to 55 fathoms on the western part of the Bank. They were moving quite 
fast to the westward, but nevertheless a number of the vessels got large fares in a very few days. 
When we arrived in this locality the fish had left, probably being driven by the ice-floes which 
slowly drifted to the southward, reaching at one time as far south as latitude 43° 40’, in the middle 
of the Bank, and causing the fishermen much anxiety and more or less loss of gear by unexpectedly 
drifting on their vessels in the night. On one occasion a number of vessels tried to skirt the ice 
and get around it so as to reach the northwest part of the Bank, but toward night of the day on 
which the attempt was made a northeast gale and heavy snow-storm came on, and we all lay to 
under the lee of the ice, which made the sea very smooth. The next day we found the floe had 
been driven so far south by the gale that we did not again attempt to get by to the northwest of 
