274 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 2, 1904. 
With the Gloucester Fishermen. 
A STRANGER in Gloucester happening to wander along 
the many wharves of that busy town during the latter 
part of March, would be struck by the remarkable ac- 
tivity to be seen, more intense than at any other time 
of the year. Here two or three vessels on the ways 
undergoing a final overhauling, there one in the water, 
with the painters busy on her sides, and the riggers 
swarming over her deck and aloft, bending sails and 
standing rigging. Further on, one is moored to the 
wharf, receiving into her capacious hold all kinds of 
supplies for the voyage, food for the men, salt, eight 
or ten tons of it, two or three hundred empty barrels 
catch of the season. No time is lost in port, and very 
often not more than six hours is spent in unloading, 
getting a few necessary supplies aboard, and starting 
down the harbor. After the middle of May a seiner 
is rare around New York. They are then off Block 
Island, Nantucket and the Cape, their catches are not 
as heavy and are landed at Newport, and shipped fresh 
to New York by the Fall River boats. Still later the 
ports of call are Boston and Gloucester, and T wharf 
in Boston, and the scores of company's wharfs in 
Gloster are the lodestones that draw many a large- 
fisted, broad-backed and bronzed fisherman on the look- 
out for a summer on a seiner and several good shares 
to help along his bank account. 
the cost of power, which must be kept up at all times, 
even though fish are not sighted for weeks. Gasolene 
auxiliaries have been used in the seineboats to increase 
the speed in getting around fish, but the noise of the 
propeller was found to render the fish doubly wild and 
so the idea was abandoned. Automatic pursers are 
now used universally in place of the old and slower 
method of pursing by hand; while balls of prepared 
salt bait are sometimes thrown in the net to tempt the 
fish to feed until the seine is pursed, and thus render 
capture certain. And so it goes throughout every stage 
of the business. The trade is the same as it was many 
centuries ago, but the methods are up-to-date in every 
particular. ' 
SURROUNDING THE FISH. 
DUMPING INTO THE POCKET. 
and twelve or fifteen tons of ice. Just outside of her, 
lies a vessel ready and trim for the voyage, a little 
smoke issuing from her fo'castle, her hatches off, and 
a few men lounging around her decks with an air of 
proprietorship, but more below arranging their bunks. 
These are the crew, eager, after a winter spent in va- 
rious pursuits and with varying fortunes, to get back 
to the sea and to the most remunerative and fascinat- 
ing branch of the fisheries of Gloucester. The captain is 
up in the office at the head of the wharf receiving final 
instructions from the firm, and when he comes clam- 
bering aboard and the little tug comes alongside and 
puffs the. vessel away, amid farewell shouts of luck and 
a running fire of jokes and satire between the wharf 
and vessel, you very naturally turn to the man beside 
It was in this latter place that I had the good fortune 
to get a berth in one of the finest and best equipped 
vessels in the fleet, schooner Saladin, of Gloucester, the 
highest type of mackerel seiner that has yet been de- 
veloped. Over looft. in length, built' for speed and 
seaworthiness,_ she has the great advantage over those 
fishermen vrhich depend on wind alone for motive 
powder, of carrying a 100 horse-power marine gasolene 
engine, capable of driving her seven and one-half knots, 
and invaluable during light breezes, when the fish are 
running. Of. vessels thus equipped there are but six, 
all of recent construction, the rest of the fleet carrying 
no additional motive power to their sails. Money is 
not spared in their construction, the cost, fully equipped 
with engine, rigging, two seine boats and dories, and 
In regard to the fisherman himself, current opinion 
is still more erroneous. Six hours on board was long 
enough to convince me that here at last had I found 
the modern prototype of the ancient Norseman. Big 
of bone and body, with faces weatherbeaten and: 
bronzed by storm and sun, eyes and rnouth which give' 
promise of reserve power to meet any emergencies 
which might arise in this dangerous calling, dressed in 
all sorts of old clothes, they formed a- picturesque little 
world of their own, a wo'rld which has to do with 
elemental forces and which leaves the daintier callings 
of life to those of a less hardy nature. The capabilities 
of the newcomer for the work in hand is quickly judged, 
and he -is accepted on his merits without any recom- 
mendation. If they fancy him it will be a long time be- 
HOISTING THE POCKET. 
THE CATCH ON DECK. 
you and ask the meaning of all this excitement and 
activity, to learn that the mackerel fleet is fitting out 
for the season, after having been laid up since last 
November. 
Almost one hundred vessels there are that follow this 
branch of the fisheries, and the finest in the fleet. 
Watch them as they stand out of the harbor with all 
sails drawing well in the fresh southerly breeze, and 
just enough of a heel to reveal the beauty lines of the 
underbody. If you are fortunate enough to be aboard, 
go aloft and mark the speed in the lines of the hull as 
you look down, stand abaft the lee quarter and see if 
you can find any dead water in the wake, and you will 
fall in love with the vessel at once. And after you 
have gone through a two days' hard blow from the 
east your admiration will develop into confidence and 
respect. 
Their objective point at the beginning of the season 
is off the eastern coast from Hatteras to Sandy Hook, 
and here it is that they hope to be the first to sight 
"fish," and to make a quick run to New York with a 
mwk of bun4Fe4 barrels qI imh mm^ml, tb? irit 
two mammoth seines, worth $1,000 each, being about 
$20,000, and their success in landing big fares seeming 
to warrant the prediction that all the first-class vessels 
of future construction will be of the same type. 
It is a common impression that the fishing industry 
is practically at the same stage of development that it 
was fifty or one hundred years ago, and that the 
fisherman is a slow and methodical animal, who lacks 
initiative, and fishes because he can't do anything else. 
In some branches of the business this may be true, but 
not of the seiner. No trust manager is quicker to make 
use of a new idea to increase his income than the 
modern owner, who is constantly consulting his cap- 
tains and crews for new ideas that will give him a 
lead over his competitors. Many instances of this can 
be given. A few years ago a vessel was launched, built 
from the drawings of a noted speed-yacht designer, 
which had an equal carrying capacity, and could sail 
three knots to two of the older models. Now they are 
all racers. At the present time the experiment of a 
steam seiner is being made, and bids fair to be aban- 
doned, the fdvantage of spetd being overbalanced bj? 
fore he finds it out; if they don't, he will know the 
fact in about twenty-four hours. Twelve of the crew 
*were Nova Scotia men, naturalized Americans who made 
Gloucester their home, and the rest were native Ameri- 
cans from various towns on the Maine coast. This ratio 
will hold throughout the fleet, if a sprinkling of Scandi- 
navians, Portuguese- and French are added. 
A typical example of the longevity of these men was 
our "oracle," an old salt almost seventy years of age, 
who was continually airing his views and who re- 
minded one of the ancient prophets, for he had no 
honor among the crew. Nobody would listen to him, 
but that did not prevent his pulling an oar and doing 
his work with the best. Our youngest was a Nova 
Scotia man, about twenty-four years old, the recipient, 
invariably at meal time of the table jokes, on account 
of his long continued and death-like sleeps and his 
enormous carrying capacity. The fact that he had the 
previous winter done that which no fisherman will do 
unless pushed to it, made a trip to the banks, also 
caused him to be singled out as a victim. For t!".is 
par|icular trip, aftfr vainly casting argyncj ashore ji\ 
