2— THE FISHING VESSELS AND BOATS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
BY J. W. COLLINS. 
[With 13 plates and 4 text cuts.] 
Many of the vessels employed in the Pacific Coast fisheries are not typical fishing 
craft, or, at least, have not been developed as an outcome of the fisheries and specially 
constructed for the purpose. Many of those built for the trade came from New England, 
and under this head would be included whaling ships as well as schooners employed 
in the cod and halibut fisheries. 
I.— THE WHALE FLEET. 
1. General remarlcs . — In recent years San Francisco has become the principal winter 
rendezvous for fleets engaged in the whale fishery in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. 
The Arctic and Okhotsk Sea fisheries are uow of special importance, and most of the ves- 
sels employed in them in summer return to San Francisco in the fall, land their catch, and 
remain there until they refit for another northern voyage or, as is commonly the case, 
start on a preliminary cruise in the Pacific. 
San Francisco has now become largely interested in the whale fishery, and, perhaps 
as a natural result, many of the vessels sailing from there are those purchased from 
whaling ports in New England. Thus we find that several of the steamers and barks 
which constitute the larger part of the fleet are typical New England whalers. A 
number of whaling vessels have been built on the Pacific Coast. These are generally 
modern in type; several of them are first-class auxiliary steamers and resemble the 
latest additions to the New England whaling fleet. But, judging from a series of 
photographs of San Francisco whalers, now in the possession of the IT. S. Fish Com- 
mission, it would seem that a considerable number of steamers and perhaps a smaller 
number of sailing vessels, particularly schooners, have been taken from other trades 
and put into this business without regard to their special adaptability as originally 
constructed. Ordinary coasting steamers and other vessels have been fitted up and 
strengthened, to make them, as far as practicable, suitable to encounter the perils and 
peculiar conditions incident to the whale fishery among the icefloes of the northern 
seas. The vessels that go to the Arctic have their bows heavily sheathed with hard 
wood and iron, while they are otherwise made stronger so that they can successfully 
endure the strain and pounding which are inevitable when making passages through 
ice-floes. 
For Arctic fishing auxiliary steamers are by far the most serviceable and least 
* These notes were primarily intended for publication as a part of a report on the fisheries of the 
Pacific Coast of the United States, hut circumstances have made it expedient to print them separately. 
IS 
