THE MACKEREL PURSE-SEINE FISHERY. 267 
The common method of dressing on a seining schooner is as follows: The men engaged in 
dressing are divided into gangs generally of three men each. Each gang has two wooden trays 
about 3-feet square and 6 or 8 inches deep; these are placed on the tops of barrels; one is called 
a ‘gib-tub, the other a ‘splitting-tub.’ * 
Except on the seiners, the mackerel, when caught, are put into the barrels, and the splitting 
is done upon a board laid across the top of the barrel, rather than in a splitting-tub. One man of 
each gang splits, the other two gib, or eviscerate, the fish. The tub of the man who splits, of 
course, contains the fish to be split. With a scoop-net the splitter, or one of the “ gibbers,” from 
time to time, fills the splitting-tub from the pile of mackerel lying upon the deck. On the side of 
the splitting-tray next to the “gibbers” is a board about 6 to 10 inches wide, called a ‘‘splitting- 
board,” on which the splitter places the fish as he cuts them open. He takes them in his left hand 
(on which he has a mitten) round the center of the body, head from him, and with the splitting- 
knife splits them down the center of the back. As fast as he splits the fish he tosses them into 
the tray of the “gibbers.” The “ gibbers” protect their hands with gloves or mittens. As fast as 
the “ gibbers” remove the viscera, with a peculiar double motion of the thumb and fingers of the 
right hand, they throw the fish into barrels, which are partially filled with water; these are called 
‘‘wash-barrels.” If the men have time they “ plow” the fish before salting them, making a gash 
in the sides of the fish nearly to the skin with the peculiar knife, ‘“‘the plow,” provided for the 
purpose. 
Before the fish are salted the dirty water is poured out and clean water is added. About one 
barrel of salt is used for every four barrels of mackerel. This is the first salting. When the fish 
have been salted they are placed in unheaded barrels until the weather is unfit for fishing, or the 
deck is filled with them, when they are carefully headed up and stowed away below. 
The speed with which a large deck-load of mackerel can be disposed of by the crew is some- 
thing marvelous. A good splitter will handle from forty-five to sixty mackerel a minute. In one 
well-authenticated case a man split sixty-seven mackerel a minute for three consecutive minutes. t 
A good “ gibber” can handle a barrel of large mackerel in from five to seven minutes. A smart 
crew of fourteen men can dispose of a deck-load of large mackerel in from fifteen to eighteen 
hours, salting them away properly in the barrels. The smaller the mackerel the longer it takes to 
dress a barrel of them, the time required to handle a small or a large mackerel being precisely 
the same. 
When the fish are to be iced and carried fresh to market they can be disposed of much more 
rapidly, it being simply necessary to stow them away in the hold without splitting. They are 
usually washed before being placed in ice, and occasionally gibbed without splitting, the viscera 
being drawn through the gill openings.t The most rapid way of caring for the fish is to place 
them in barrels of ice-water. This is done for the most part in the spring or fall. 
* Also called, especially in Gloucester, ‘‘gib-keelers” and “ splitting-keelers.” 
+ An expert can split mackerel nearly as fast in the darkest night as at any other time. The sense of touch 
becomes so acute from long practice that the fisherman can tell (without seeing it) when he grasps a mackerel 
whether its head is in the right direction er not, and also which side should be laid to the board in order to bring the 
fish’s back in proper position for the knife. The splitter holds the knife with his fingers, letting the thumb slide down 
along the upper side of the fish, thus guiding unerringly the keen and swiftly moving blade. Whether the fish be 
large or small it is almost invariably split with the utmost precision, the edge of the knife glancing along on the left 
side of the vertebra, and scarcely a hair’s breadth from it, while the point goes just deep enough and no farther. 
But one must witness the operation of splitting mackerel in order to fully appreciate the skillfulness of the per- 
formance. i 
{Fresh mackerel are never gibbed for the New York market in spring, but a law of Massachusetts compels the 
fishermen to eviscerate all mackerel taken to Boston. In the first named port the cargoes of fresh fish are sold by 
commission merchants, while in Boston the captain sells directly to the dealers, 
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