588 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
anywhere were brought to those ports by two or three small sloop-smacks which were the greater 
part of the time engaged in seining shore fish, and sold there at high prices in the public markets. 
About the year 1874 attempts were made at Pensacola to catch and handle red-snappers in a 
more economical and business-like manner. Staunch, well-equipped schooner-smacks were chartered 
in Connecticut to fish off Pensacola during the winter, and on shore arrangements were made for 
the storage, shipment, and sale of a large catch. On account of the poor facilities for transporta- 
tion of such goods, the high prices at which the fish must be sold, and their strangeness to inland 
people, there was but small demand for several years, and the prospect was not encouraging to the 
men who had interested themselves in the enterprise. At last, however, the red-snapper became 
introduced throughout the country, and most other conditions were favorable for its sale in large 
quantities. 
The pioneer Pensacola firm introduced several new methoths and features into the business, 
such as the buying of fish by the pound instead of by the bunch, as had before been the custom, 
the shipping of fish to the interior, using ice for the preservation of fish on the vessels, and the 
wages system of payment to the fishermen. 
In 1880~81 another fishing firm was established and new impetus given to the trade. 
This season witnessed the most decided changes from many of the old customs of the business, 
ashore and afloat, to the latest ideas and newest methods. The fleet of vessels was considerably 
enlarged, and the whole improved in equipment and in the plans for catching and preserving fish. 
Men of experience from the deep-water fisheries of the northern countries were employed, some 
receiving shares of the voyages, while the majority were paid monthly wages. The crews were 
enlarged in number from five to seven or eight men, the extra men being required to fish from 
dories at different parts of the ground. Before this all of the fish that swallowed the hook or had 
their stomachs forced out of their mouths were thrown away, a8 they would not live in the well, 
but good ice-houses or pens were built into the vessels and all the “ gulleters” saved, amounting to 
several hundred fish on some trips. 
It was also found profitable to have a supply of ice at hand so that in stormy weather all of 
the fish may be removed from the well, to prevent their being chafed or killed. At first each 
vessel would take one or two tons of ice, but within five months the same vessels carried five or 
six tons, and they brought very few of their catch in wells. Consequently since that time nearly 
all the additions to the fleet have been vessels without wells, but with large and convenient 
storage-room for ice. The question of having a regular supply of fresh bait has received much 
attention for six years, and still is unsolved. A small pound was kept down one fall during a run 
of young menhaden, and as long as the fish were present it kept a supply of good bait. The part 
of the year when red-snappers are dainty about their food is early spring when, generally, no 
good bait-fish can be caught anywhere within 400 miles of the fishery. The northern salt-bait, 
excepting squid, have been tried and proved of no value for snappers. 
Another year a small freezing-room was filled with lady fish (Hlops saurus), which kept in 
excellent condition, and angwered the purpose well when carried to the fishing-grounds in ice water, 
but it was too expensive to become generally used. For the preservation of small or soft fishes 
there is no better way than to keep them in ice water. 
The fishing-grounds lately resorted to by the fleet are so far from land and so small in area 
that very often the good weather would be spent in finding them by the old plan of steering a 
certain course and then blindly searching with sounding-line. Therefore to lessen such difficulties 
the vessels were provided with patent taffrail logs, and the captains in some cases instructed in the 
Bimple methods of finding their position at sea by the sun. 
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