40 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
22. Salmon seine boats and scows . — Tlie typical seine boat of the Columbia River 
and Puget Sound (which is employed for operating drag seines on the Columbia and 
purse seines in the deep, swift waters of Puget Sound) is a craft of the sharpy pattern. 
It is an open, flat-bottomed boat, with moderate sheer, sharp bow, wide, square stern, 
and a good deal of camber to the bottom, particularly in the after section, where it 
curves up sharply. Boats of this type are roughly and heavily built, the main object 
being, apparently, to get a craft that will stand a good deal of rough usage, that will 
float on a light draft, that will easily support the seine on the stern, and which is 
otherwise well adapted to the fishery. 
Writing of the Puget Sound fisheries, Captain Tanner says: 
The boats used in the salmon fishery are about 25 feet long and 7 feet wide, the greatest width 
being at the stern, which is square. The bottom is flat, hut turns up slightly at the stern. These 
boats have three thwarts adapted for two men rowing at each. About 8 feet of the after part of the 
boat is decked over and upon this deck the seine is stowed. The method of stowing and throwing the 
seine differs somewhat from that followed in the mackerel fishery. The salmon seine being thrown 
over the stern of the boat, it has to be stowed fore and aft instead of athwartship. The corks are 
placed on the port side, the twine on the starboard side. The twine is thrown in a heap, not arranged 
neatly in "flakes” and "bits” as upon a mackerel boat, because the man that throws it is not particu- 
lar to have it clear the stern so as not to retard the speed of the boat in going around a school. The 
result is that the oarsmen have an extra amount of work to perform. * 
On Puget Sound large, clumsy, square-ended scows are used witb the seine boats 
for operating the purse seines, and these, as well as the boats, are often, if not gen- 
erally, towed to the fishing grounds by steam tugs. Captain Tanner remarks : 
The scow, upon which most of the work is done, and which is considered* indispensable in setting 
the seine, is 20 feet long by 8 wide, and at each end of it is an iron winch. These winches are used 
for the pursing up, the seine being pursed from the scow. There is a wooden purse davit which is 
stepped into the side, of the scow and to which are attached two 3-inch wooden blocks, the purse line 
leading from them to the winches at either end. Eleven to fourteen men are required to set the seine, 
six at the oars, two at the seine, and two on the scow. Of those at the seine, one throws the corks, 
the other the twine. The cost of a salmon seine boat and scow is from $1,200 to $1,300. 
Occasionally the gill-net salmon boats are used for shooting seines. But this is 
most common in the small rivers where comparatively short nets are operated. As a 
rule these boats can not be profitably employed for seining on the Columbia River, since 
their draft is too great for working satisfactorily on the shallow bars of this river, 
where the seines are commonly landed, and also because, being sharp aft, they can 
not so well support a seine as the broad-sterned, shallow sharpy. 
VI.— THE MARKET FLEET. 
23. General statement . — The market fishing fleet of the Pacific coast is composed 
almost wholly of craft of less than 5 tons, many of which are small open boats, only 
suitable for fishing near the shore, within easy reach of a harbor or land. There is a 
very considerable variety of boats employed in supplying the markets of the coast, but 
generally the fleets are composed largely of two types : the felucca, used most exten- 
sively at San Francisco and along the California coast, and the salmon boat, which is 
found in greater or less numbers all the way from San Diego to Puget Sound. Besides 
'Explorations of the fishing grounds of Alaska, Washington Territory, and Oregon during 1888 
by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross, pp. 55-56. 
