PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
343 
so liardy and do not keep niu(;h more than halt that long. The length of time which 
the cod Avill live depends also on the time they have been kept on the trawls, in case 
that form of ap])aratus is used. On arrival at Fulton Market the fish are removed 
from the well with long-handled dip nets, and placed in wooden cars, Avhich are kept 
floating in the dock. For a description of these cars see next page. 
Lobster smacks are employed mainly along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, 
but there are a few at New York, Glreeuport, and New London. Up to a few years 
ago vessels of this typo were used in bringing lobsters from Nova Scotia, but at present 
those shipments are made usually in barrels on regular commercial steamers. The 
lobster smacks are mostly old vessels which were formerly employed in the live-flsh 
trade before icing became the general practice; but many flue vessels are now coming 
into use, and at Portland, Maine, four steamers are engaged in this trade. About CO 
well-smacks are now employed in transporting lobsters along the coast, running to 
Rockland, Portland, Boston, New London, New York, etc. Their capacity ranges from 
3,000 to 16,000 lobsters, with an average of about 9,000 during cold weather and about 
two-thirds or half that number when the weather is warm. The loss in transit is 
small, rarely amounting to 2 per cent, uuless the weather is calm or the loaded smack 
remains in still water very long, when the lobsters use ui» the air held in solution by 
the water and smother. These vessels are not so extensively employed as a few years 
ago, on account of the competition with steamer and railroad transportation, but they 
are yet an important factor in connection with the lobster trade. 
ITie well-smacks until recently employed in the Gulf of Mexico red-snapper flshery 
were of the same type as those in use on the New England coast, indeed most of them 
were designed for the New England flsheries. At Key West a number of smaller sail 
craft, known locally as “ smackees,” are provided with wells. These boats average 
about 25 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 4 or 5 feet deep, with shar]) bottom, the deep draft 
being necessary in order to submerge the hull sufficiently for the water to cover the 
fish in the well, which occupies about a (piarter of the boat’s length measured on the 
keel. 
On account of the great deiith from which red snappers and groupers are as a 
rule obtained, considerable difficulty was at first experienced in keeping them alive, 
the jiressure of the water being so much less in the wells than at a depth of several 
fathoms that the air bladder would become greatly distended and the fish float belly 
up. To overcome this the fishermen adopted a practice of puncturing the air bladder 
as soon as the fish reaches the surface, forcing a hollow metal tube J-inch in diameter 
into the side of the fish a little behind and just above the pectoral flu, thus relieving 
the air bladder of its extreme buoyancy so that the fish may control its movements 
in the well. Only those red snappers taken in less than 10 fathoms of water can be 
successfully held in the wells for a week or two; if caught in more than 10 fathoms 
they must be handled carefully, and if from over 20 fathoms they soon have a swollen 
surface, the eyes protruding and the scales becoming loosened and standing erect. 
For the purpose of holding the surplus fish when the well became overcrowded, some 
01 the smack fishermen also carried two or three cars, about 8 feet long, 4 feet deep, 
and 4 feet wide, so constructed that they could be taken apart and stowed below deck. 
But, as before stated, the use of ice has almost entirely superseded the employment 
of well-smacks in the red-snapper fishery. 
