342 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Diiiuber of vessels engaged, and during recent years there have been only eight or ten 
vessels which during the winter and spring take their catch of cod, sea bass, and 
blacktish into Fulton Market alive. Well-smacks have been employed also in the red- 
snapper fisheries of Key West and Pensacola, but they are being discarded, it being 
found more satisfactory to ice the fish than to keep them alive. The lobster trade 
along the Kew England coast still uses a number of well-smacks, and in some of them 
steam has superseded the use of sails as a motive power. 
The well in which the fish or lobsters are placed is situated amidships at the 
bottom of the hold, extending from just forward of the main hatch nearly to the 
mainmast, and occupying about one-third of the length of the vessel. It is formed by 
two stout, water-tight bulkheads at either end, 4 or 5 feet high and about 5 inches 
thick, extending from keelson to deck and entirely across the vessel. Midway 
between these is usually another bulkhead, which assists in supporting the deck and 
divides the well iuro two compartments. Leading from the well to the deck is a funnel 
curb, about 2.j feet wide by 8 feet long at its upper end and 4 feet long at its lower 
end. The well has neither keelson nor ceiling, and the frames are usually the same 
distance apart as elsewhere in the vessel, but on some smacks they are twice as far 
apart, in order to permit the water to circulate freely and to facilitate dipping the fish 
from the well. About 300 auger-holes are bored in the bottom planking of the well, 
through which the sea water freely enters, and it is kept in circulation and constantly 
renewed by the motion of the boat. On the lobster smacks the auger-holes are gener- 
ally 2 inches in diameter, whereas those on fish smacks are more frequently 1 inch. 
Tlie vessels range from 12 to 60 tons and those using sails are either schooner or sloop 
rigged, though more frequently of the former type. 
On the British coast a number of “dry-well” smacks, having an artificial circula- 
tion of water, are employed. In some of these there is a series of one or more lengths 
of perforated supply pipes arranged near the bottom of the well and connected at 
one end to a circulating pump operated by the main engine if on a steamer, or by a 
donkey engine or otherwise if on a sailing vessel, a two-way cock being on the pipes 
outside the well. The pipes, being at the bottom of the well, cause a continual circu- 
lation of water in an upward direction and thoroughly aerate the water as well as 
cause all tlie scum and refuse to rise to the top, whence, along with the used water, it 
escapes bark into the sea through several bell-mouthed overflow pipes, the lower ends 
of which pass through the vessel’s bottom and are mounted so as to incline aft from the 
top, and thus allow the force from the forward movement of the vessel to suck them 
clear. The aeration of the water can thus be kept under perfect control and the well 
be readily emptied of water by pumping when it is desired to remove the fish. 
The well-smacks running cod, sea bass, and tantog to the New York market, 
which fisli off Sandy Hook and Long Island shore, have capacity for 8,000 to 20,000 
pounds of fish each, depending on the time of the year and the length of the trip. 
Hand lines are employed for the most part and the fish are placed in the well as soon 
as taken from the water, the hook being carefully removed. Each vessel generally 
carries a small quantity of ice, with which to preserve such fish as may die, as well 
as the surplus that can not be placed in the well, this ice being carried in pens at 
either end of the well. The cod when caught in no great depth of water live in the 
well, under ordinary conditions, a week or more, but the sea bass and tautog are not 
