358 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Notwithstanding no accident occurred on the occasion referred to 
above, and although the fishermen exhibited no anxiety, it is neverthe- 
less a fact that the ferrying of fish is accompanied with a great deal 
of risk and peril, and it not unfrequently happens that men are drowned 
while engaged in this service. Concerning this the following report 
was made to the Board of Trade: “During the progress of the investi- 
gations held before us it was repeatedly shown that this operation of | 
‘boarding’ the fish is conducted without regard to order or system of 
any kind whatever. So soon as the steam cutter arrives at the fleet, 
each smack hastens to send its boat alongside first, to fetch stores, let- 
ters, etc., and empty boxes for future use, and again to load the full 
ones on board the steam cutter. The smacks sail up close to the steam 
cutter, some on one tack and some on the other, dropping their boats 
alongside as they pass ahead of her, where they lay to, waiting to pick 
up their boat again. Many boats by this means get congregated along- 
side the steam cutter at the same time, and a struggle ensues as to who 
shall unload his fish first. The result is that boats are frequently [ 
smashed and sometimes capsized, occasionally entailing loss of life to 
the hands in them. Some of the smacks also are in the habit of running 
so close to these boats that a wash is produced, which increases the j 
danger. In the Hull and Grimsby fleets the men who man the boats 
discharge the boxes onto the deck of the steamer and then generally s 
lower them into the hold, where the steamer’s crew stow them away, 
assisted by a certain number of smack hands, who are paid a gratuity 
for this work. In Ilewett’s fleet it is the rule for the boxes to be placed 
only on the deck of the steamer by the boat’s crew.” 
It may be mentioned here that attempts have been made to devise 
some other means for transferring the fish from the catcher to the car- 
rier. A sketch was exhibited in the British section at the International 
Fisheries Exhibition at London, showing how the transfer could be 
made by means of an endless rope working between a smack and a 
carrier, the fish boxes being tied to the rope, and pulled on board the 
steamer through the water. Laboring under the mistaken idea that 
the beam-trawl fishery is carried on in American waters, Mr. John Bland, 
of London, who, it would appear, is the deviser of this scheme, addressed 
a letter to the President of the United States, in which, after speaking 
of the danger attending the “boarding” of fish, he takes occasion to 
say : “ I would suggest that at a distance of 60 or 100 yards the collect- 
ing steamer throw by rocket a slight line to the smack. By means of 
this line the smack would draw to itself an endless rope, to be arranged 
over a loose block 6 or 8 feet above the deck. A box or barrel of fish 
would be attached to the lower part of the rope by means of a simple 
hook, then dropped overboard, and drawn to the steamer by steam- 
power. A few minutes immersion would not do the slightest harm to 
the boxes, and as the water would support the greater part of the 
weight, a dozen packages of fish might be attached to the rope at the 
