THE MACKEREL PURSE-SEINE FISHERY. 251 
and stern, but with position varied according to the fancies of the fishermen, are fixed in the gun- 
wale two staples, to which are attached other snatch-blocks used to secure additional purchase 
upon the purse-ropes. In the center of the platform at the stern of the boat is placed a large 
wooden pump, used to draw out the water which accumulates in large quantities during the haul- 
ing of the seine. The steering rowlocks, with the peculiar attachment for the tow-rope and the 
metallic fixtures described above, are manufactured especially for seine-boats by a firm at Middle- 
town, Conn. 
Until 1872 the seine-boats were always built in the lap-streak style; since that time an 
improved form of smooth-bottomed boats, built with battened seam, set-work, sheathed inside with 
pine, and with oak frame and pine platform, has been growing in popularity. The advantages 
claimed for this boat by the builders are: (1) Increased speed; (2) greater durability, on account 
of the more solid character of the woodwork and tighter seams; and (3) less liability to catch the 
twine of the nets by reason of the smooth sides. It is not so stiff as a lap-streaked boat of the 
same width, but in other respects is superior. 
Since the general adoption of the purse-seine in the menhaden and mackerel fisheries, an 
account of which is given elsewhere, there has been a gradual increase from year to year in the 
size of the seine-boats, keeping pace with a corresponding increase in the size of the seines. 
In 1857 all boats were 28 feet in length; in 1872 the length had increased to 30 feet, and in 
the summer and fall of the same year an additional foot was added to the length; in 1873 almost 
all boats which were built had a length of 31 feet, a few of 32 and 33; in 1874 almost all were 33 
feet, as they were during 1875 and 1876, although some were made 35 and 36 feet; in 1877 34 feet 
was the most popular length, though one or two 38-foot boats were then built. Seven, eight, or 
nine oars, usually 13 or 14 feet in length, are used in these boats, besides a steering-oar of 16 or 17. 
These boats last, with ordinary usage, six or seven years. At the close of the fishing season 
they are always taken ashore and laid up for the winter in a shed or under trees, and are com- 
pletely refitted at the beginning of another season. 
The seine-boats carried by niany of the “menhaden catchers” south of Cape Cod and by some 
of the steamers are shaped like ships’ yawls, square-sterned, smooth-bottomed, and batten-seamed, 
22 to 26 feet long and 63 feet beam. They are built at New Bedford, New London, Greenport, and 
at Mystic River, and cost about $125 each, the finest $185. The New Bedford boats are preferred 
by many fishermen. 
The Cape Ann fishermen stow their seines in one boat, and in shooting the seine one end of it 
is carried in a dory.* 
The arrangement of the thwarts is especially adapted for the mackerel fishery. There is 
some variation, however, as to the number of these in the different sizes of boats. In the size 
most commonly in use at the present time (1881) there are six thwarts, five of these being forward 
of midships and one 73 feet farther aft. The following are the general dimensions of the boat: 
36 feet long over all; 7 feet 7 inches wide; 2 feet 8 inches deep. The bow thwart is placed 4 feet 
from the stem, and there is a space of 24 feet between each of the five forward thwarts. The boat 
is ceiled to the gunwales and platformed inside. In the bow she has a raised platform, which 
comes up to the level, or nearly so, of the forward thwart, to which it extends, and is bulkheaded 
on the after end. The stern is covered over on the top of the gunwales, forming the stern sheets, 
this being 3 feet long forward of the stern-post, with a bulkhead on the forward side. Forward of 
this again, and a little below the level of the thwarts, is another platform, 3 feet in length, also 
bulkheaded on the forward side. On this the seine-master stands while steering the boat, and in 
* Goode, History of the American Menhaden, p. 122, 
