288 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
uniformly of better quality. Many of the Gloucester mackerel-hookers were accustomed to divide 
their crew into dressing gangs of two each instead of three, as at the present time on the seining 
vessels, one of these men splitting and the other gibbing. It was the duty of the splitter to get 
the barrels, fill them with water, and, when he had split more fish than the gibber could take care 
of, to aid the latter in his work.* 
On the seining vessel, as we have seen, the mackerel are, in most cases, heaped on the deck ; 
on the mackerel-hookers, the fish were already in barrels, and the order of proceeding was slightly 
different. The splitting-board was placed on the head of one of the “strike” barrels; the fish were 
taken out of the barrels, split, and thrown into the gib tub, where they were handled in the ordi- 
nary manner. The process of gibbing having been completed, the fish were “plowed” and put 
into the second barrel, which was filled with clean water. From this barrel they were changed 
into the barrel in which they were salted. The precess of salting is as follows: A barrel of mack- 
erel is emptied out on deck; a “gib-keeler” is filled with salt; one of the men now throws the 
mackerel into the “ gib-keeler,” while the other man “rubs” them in the salt by taking one in each 
hand; the back of one is then placed to the flesh of the other, and they are thrown into the barrel 
with the flesh side down. They are thus salted and packed away into barrels in successive layers, 
each (with the exception of the bottom tier) with the flesh side down.t A barrel of large mackerel 
can be salted in from five to ten minutes. 
In order to cure mackerel successfully very fine salt must be used, and every part of the fish 
must be touched or it will spoil.t Careless salters sometimes leave “thumb-marks” where their 
thumbs touch the fish during the process of salting, preventing the access of the salt. These fish 
do not keep well. 7 
It was customary on the “hookers” to Jet the mackerel remain on deck for several days after 
being salted, the length of time varying to a considerable extent, as it depended very much on the 
amount of fish taken. When the mackerel were well struck, or after they had been salted from 
two to five or six days, the barrels were “topped up” with fish, to make up for the shrinkage from 
the first salting, after which they were carefully headed up and stowed in the hold. If the men 
kept their catch separate, each one cut a private mark on the head of the barrel containing his 
fish. Asa rule, the mackerel were ‘ stowed down” whenever 40 or 50 barrels had accumulated on 
deck, but when fish were abundant and took the hook freely for several days in succession it often 
happened that more than a hundred barrels of fish would be caught before any were put below. 
Capt. Epes W. Merchant, of Gloucester, informs us that the practice of salting mackerel was 
inaugurated at Gloucester in 1818. Scituate fishermen had begun this practice somewhat earlier. 
The methods of salting have not materially changed since that time. Previous to 1850 the vessels 
*The most general custom, perhaps, on the Gloucester vessels was to have two men in a gang, though this was 
varied a good deal on different schooners. Some crews preferred dress gangs of three men each, while others some- 
times had four men working together, one of them ‘‘ passing up” the mackerel to the splitter. 
t The early method of packing them flesh up has been abandoned. 
¢This is the case when the mackerel axe “ rubbed,” Liverpool salt being almost wholly used, since Cadiz salt. 
owing to its coarseness, has a tendency to tear or ‘‘ruck up” the flesh of the fish and give them a ragged appearance, 
Many of the Cape Cod fishermen, however, preferred to use Cadiz salt, believing it to be better for curing the fish 
than Liverpool. Their manner of applying it was quite different from that which has been described. Each man 
salted his own catch. Placing a wash-barrel of mackerel at his left hand, an empty barrel in front of him, and with 
a bucket or basket of salt at his right, the fisherman rapidly transferred the fresh fish into the proper barrel, placing 
each flesh up, and scattering over it with the right hand a sufficient quantity of salt. An expert can thus take care 
of many more fish than apy one unacquainted with the method would believe possible, though it is safe to say, 
mackerel can be handled more expeditiously by the process of rubbing, and for this reason the Cape Cod style of 
salting has never come into favor at Cape Ann and on the coast of Maine. 
