USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 26
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THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
on top of empty barrels. The fish are seized by the 'splitters' who lay the fish on a board, and with a quick motion draw the splitting knife down through the entire length of the fish from the head to the tail, laying it open from its back to the inner ventral wall. The 'gibber' receives the split fish from the splitter, seizes it in the left hand by the head and with the right pulls away the gills and viscera, casting the fish into a barrel. When all the fish have been split and gibbed the crew begin 'plowing' them. This operation is done by an instru- ment fitted with a sharp-cutting edge. The instrument is grasped by its curved handle and the edge drawn twice across the inner ventral wall of the mackerel lightly and quickly, the object being to cut enough of the membrane to show how fat the fish may be. The process of 'plowing' mackerel is not always resorted to. The final work remains to put the fish loosely in barrels and fill the barrels with water. There the fish are allowed to remain for ten or twelve hours in order that the blood may be soaked out of them.
"All the work of catching a school of mackerel that has been described thus far, from the setting of the seine to the last act, must be done without any rest on the part of the fish- ermen. If a large school of fish, perhaps several hundred bar- rels, is taken towards night the crew work without stopping until the fish are taken care of. It may be daylight again before their work has been finished. In case of all-night work the cook usually prepares coffee about midnight and the crew have a 'mug up.' When daylight finds the work only just completed it may happen that other fish are discovered school- ing; then the work goes on as before, with no chance for sleep or rest and little opportunity for refreshment.
"When the dressed fish have soaked long enough in the water they are dumped out and then carefully packed into the barrels, after being thoroughly salted. Here they remain one or two days to allow them time to contract and settle to the normal size of a pickled mackerel. The barrel is then filled with the fish, strong salt brine is poured over them, after which the barrel is headed and stowed away in the hold. If the trip is a long one the fish may be inspected in the hold and if any
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barrels are found in which the brine has leaked out they are hoisted on deck and refilled.
"The life of the crew aboard a mackerel seiner is all work or no work. When mackerel are abundant and schooling well, there is a great deal of hard work for the men. If the weather is foggy or stormy, or if no fish can be found, the amount of work required is very light. The standing of watches must go on as ever, but the task is easy when divided among six- teen men. There may be some mending of the seine during these quiet spells, or a new purse line may need to be put in, or some light work done in repairing the rigging. With leisure on their hands the crew do as other men in other occupations do when loafing, in so far as their surroundings will allow. Some lie in their berths and read; others sleep a great deal; a knot of them gather on the quarter and spin yarns; there is always the sea-lawyer present to give final decision on all questions that come up for consideration; and always from early morn until nine in the evening one may find part of the crew playing cards. There is no observance of Sunday on fishing vessels except in the cessation of card playing. It is a day for work; but it is rarely that games are carried on by the crew on the Sabbath. 39
"The pursuit of the mackerel and the cod, with his allied kindred the haddock, hake, halibut, pollock and cusk, consti- tute the deep-sea fishery of New England. The capture of the swordfish, the bluefish, and the herring is not commonly looked upon as possessing the same significance in the fisheries that is possessed by the aspirant for those fish that are found in the deeper and broader stretches of the ocean. The methods of pursuit and capture of mackerel may be representative of the class of vessels that fish for their cargoes by means of seines. There is another class of vessels engaged in the fish-
39. Some of the expense items of a mackerel schooner are ice, the quantity taken being from 10 to 30 tons; 50 to 75 barrels of salt worth $1.75 per hogshead; 400 bar- rels at about one dollar each : food supplies for a crew of eighteen men that cost from $150 to $200 per month. The cost of ice, barrels and salt for the season depends largely upon the amount of fish taken. One-half the gross stock of the vessel, after deducting the value of salt, barrels and gasoline used in making the stock, is divided equally among the vessel's crew; the other half goes to the owners of the schooner. The average share per man for a crew of eighteen varies from $22 to $28 for every $1,000 worth of stock, depending on the expenses and the length of time of the trip.
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eries that may be described by using a trawler for an example of the methods pursued. Mackerel and ground fish are caught almost entirely by the two methods of seining and of trawling, respectively. Net fishing, drag nets, and hand lines are occa- sionally resorted to today in the mackerel fishery; but this is to a limited extent as compared with the amount of fish cap- tured by the purse-seine. Hand-line fishing from the vessel and from the dory for ground fish is resorted to somewhat; but the wholesale method employed is that of trawling. Imagine a stout cordline a mile or more in length having tied to it at distances of six feet other lines smaller in size and about three feet in length, each fitted with a hook at the end. Such an arrangement of lines and hooks is called a trawl.
"The build of the trawler differs little from that of the seiner except that the sails may be stronger, and there may be an extra riding-sail aboard. The complement of crew is about the same; food must be provided in abundance, especially when the trawler goes to the Grand Bank of Newfoundland for several weeks or months; the icehouses of the hold are furnished with a supply of frozen herring to be used for bait ; instead of many empty barrels in the hold as in the case of the mackerel seiner there is an abundant supply of salt; on deck are found eight or more dories, one stowed away in the other; and around in different places are tubs made from barrels and casks in which the trawls are neatly coiled. The trawler- fisherman pursues his calling in winter as in summer, some- times amid the severest hardships of the sea.
"When the vessel reaches the fishing ground the captain awaits a favorable opportunity to set the trawls. This does not mean calm weather or even an approach to it. Often sets are made when the sea is running high, before the full fury of a storm has abated. But the conditions must be clear, else there is great risk of losing some of the dories and their crews. The frozen herring are taken from the ice-house, cut into pieces and the hooks baited each with a piece. As the trawl is baited it is taken from one tub and coiled into another. With this work done the tubs are placed in the dories, these are hoisted overboard, and two men go with each dory. One seats himself at the oars and pulls steadily away while the
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other is busied in flinging the trawl over into the sea. The first of the trawl is made fast to a buoy which is usually a small cask, in order that the trawl may be readily found when necessary.
"A second dory is lowered from the vessel about a quarter of a mile from the first, and so on until all have been sent away. The men in the dories set their trawls, sometimes a second one near the first, and soon begin to underrun them. This process consists in hauling the trawl aboard the dory again. The signal for underrunning the trawls usually is given by the captain from the vessel in order that the trawls may be set no longer than he thinks proper, as he is a better judge of weather conditions than are the men who are busied about their work. When a trawl is thrown into the water it has a ground-line attached so that it can sink into the water the required depth and the trawl be kept in part of its length, at least, from resting on the bottom of the sea.
"In the bow of the dory is placed a 'gurdy,' or broad wheel, over which the trawl is placed when it is hauled aboard the boat. As the trawl comes aboard fish are found on the hooks. These are freed from the hook and landed in the bottom of the boat by the one who hauls the trawl by a dex- terous yank and twist. The other man receives the hooks as they come aboard, baits them, and coils the trawl again into the tubs for use at another time. When the trawl has been hauled, or all of them if more than one is used, the men seat themselves at the oars and pull for the vessel. Hauling a mile and a half of trawl from ocean bottom on a cold day in winter takes more strength and pluck than the average laborer possesses. These men who go down into the sea in winter are strong, tough, plucky fellows, the like of whom it would be hard to find in any other calling.
"Usually the vessel meets the dories more than half way in picking them up. By the time the last dory is found it is dark; there may be some trouble in finding this one, especially if the fog suddenly shuts in and the wind springs up. Then comes the terror of being lost in the fog, of rowing for hours and days at a time in order to reach land, the dread experience of hav-
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THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
ing to pass sleepless nights, and disappointing days at the oars in the ceaseless labor of rowing. Many strayed dories are picked up by other vessels; others reach the coast and are cared for; some are overwhelmed by storms that arise and their crew meet a quick death in the sea; while to a few that cruel fate of insanity and starvation aboard their frail craft is reserved. The hardships that befall the life of a fisher- man can only be realized by following in his steps and being an active participant in the hazardous, laborious, and ill-paid calling of the followers of the sea.
CURING THE FISH.
"The process of curing cod, haddock, hake, pollock, and cusk is essentially the same as was practiced a century ago. As soon as the dories return to the vessel the dressing of the fish is begun. The usual gang aboard a Grand Bank vessel consists of a 'throater,' a 'gutter,' and a 'splitter.' The first-named person cuts the fish across the throat below the gills, slits open the abdominal walls, and cuts off the fish's head. The 'gutter' removes the organs that are contained within the abdominal walls, the livers being thrown into a barrel to be saved for their oil, the other parts being cast overboard. The fish then passes to the splitter who, with a knife that is rounded at the end, cuts along each side of the backbone from the ventral side towards the back and removes the bone from the fish. Care is taken that the cut does not extend too deep and appear through the fish, or too far from the bone and thus leave much flesh on the bone that is removed. Sometimes the 'sounds,' or air bladders, are removed from the backbones and saved. The fish, after being split, are thrown into tubs of salt water and thoroughly washed.
"The salting of fish may be accomplished in either of two ways, one being called the kench cure, the other the pickle cure. In the former process, the fish are thoroughly salted and placed in regular piles on top of each other, called kenches. In this way pickle that is formed can drain off freely. Pickle- cured fish are salted and then placed in large tubs or butts, where the pickle is retained. The kench-cured fish make a drier product and are better suited for a warm market. Gen-
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erally the fish are salted in kenches aboard vessels and in butts on shore. The fish remain in kenches until the vessel reaches port. If the trip is a long one-the 'Grand Banker' may be gone three or four months on a trip-there may be need to rekench that part of the cargo that was first secured.
"After the fish are landed on the dock they are culled into different grades, the principal being large cod, which includes all over 22 inches in length when salted; medium or small cod, between 16 and 22 inches in length; and snappers, which are below 16 inches. If the cargo is a mixed one, the cod are separated from the others. The first process ashore is to wash the fish and again place them in butts, after another salting. When the time comes for them to be dried they are removed from the pickle of the butts and piled on each other in order that the pickle may drain off. These kenches of fish are about three feet high. Sometimes weights are placed on top of the kenches in order that the pickle may be pressed out quicker. This process of draining the pickle from the fish is called 'water-horsing.' From the water-horsing the fish go to the flakes, where they are spread out in the sun to dry. Fish flakes are raised about two and one-half feet from the ground, and are made by nailing narrow strips of wood about three or four inches apart on top of long stringers. This arrangement allows the free circulation of the air to all parts of the fish.
"The time required for drying depends upon the market for which the fish is being prepared. Some markets demand fish with fifty per cent. of the moisture removed; others as high as sixty or seventy per cent. Fish that are used in the preparation of boneless-fish require little drying, perhaps eight or ten hours of a good day, while the fish for export trade may require a week or ten days. Every evening the fish are gathered together in small piles on the flakes and covered by a box to prevent them absorbing moisture from fog or rain."
THE OTTER TRAWL-But apparently even the seine and the trawl are giving way before a still more modern device, the otter trawl.40
40. The following description is taken from "The Fisheries," a pamphlet issued with the compliments of the Gorton-Pew Fisheries Co., Ltd., Gloucester.
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"The otter trawl, which in more recent years has been a great factor in the increased landings of fish, consists of a large, cone-shaped net with a mouth ranging from forty to ninety feet or more in width according to the size of the vessel used. The mouth of the net is kept open when in use by two otter- boards, one on each side of the mouth, and to these boards the towing lines are fastened. The net itself is composed of sev- eral parts laced together. The cone or small end of the net is made of heavier mesh and is closed or opened with a sort of draw-string. This is known as the 'cod-end,' and the fish caught find their way into it and are retained there until the gear is lifted, the 'cod-end' hoisted aboard, and the draw-rope loosed to dump the fish on deck.
"With the gear on the bottom the trawler tows it along at a speed of from two to four miles per hour. The lower lip of the net's mouth, called the 'ground-line,' 'foot-rope,' or 'ground-rope' drags over the ocean floor, stirring up the fish that may be feeding there, and as they rise to escape, they usually dart into the cavernous mouth of the net until further passage is impeded by the meshes of the closed cod-end. Once inside, there is little chance for escape. Small fish can dart through the meshes, but larger fish can only get out by the way they got in, and that is not easily accomplished."
Some of the virtues and defects of the otter trawl are described by Lewis Radcliffe in his article on "The Fisheries of New England" in "New England's Prospect," 1933.41
"Not until 1910, however, did the fishing industry appear to awaken to the full possibilities of the otter trawl when used in vessels of greater speed and superior seagoing quali- ties, capable of operating on a larger scale and at all seasons, winter included, and of bringing in fares of fresh fish at regu- lar intervals. In that year two more steam trawlers were built, and one in each of the three succeeding years. The World War gave a considerable impetus to the acquiring of vessels of this type. In fact, many more vessels were acquired than were needed, with the result that some of them did not
41. "New England's Prospect," 1933, pp. 248-49.
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actually enter the fishery until nearly ten years after the end of the war.
"The stimulant to the New England fisheries resulting from the rapid development of the packaged fresh-fish trade initiated in 1921 has not only created a demand for these vessels during recent years, but has brought about the con- struction of many new trawlers. In 1931 the fleet of trawler vessels landing at the three principal New England fishing ports was as follows: 67 vessels of over 90 tons net; 91 vessels (draggers) of 21 to 90 tons; 62 vessels (flounder draggers ) of 5 to 20 tons. The catch of these vessels exceeded 153,000,000 pounds or 58 per cent. of the total vessel landings.
"In the period of less than a quarter-century since the otter trawl was introduced in the New England fisheries its use has been extended until the present vessel landings by this type of gear approximate total landings at the time it was introduced. It is a most efficient type of gear. With further improvements in vessel equipment to include provision for freezing the fish as caught and for caring for the waste and trash fish for manu- facture into fish meal and oil, the cruising radius and the days of absence from port may be materially increased and a more complete utilization of the catch may be effected. Yet the future of the otter trawl may not be as secure as this picture would indicate.
"In comparison with hand lines and trawl lines, the otter trawl takes a much larger proportion of small fish of market- able and unmarketable classes. As the fish are massed in the cod end of the bag while it is being towed and landed, inevita- bly they cannot escape bruising and cannot equal individually caught fish in quality. Should depletion of the fishing banks occur or should the demand increase greatly beyond the avail- able supply, warranting the utmost care in bringing to the con- sumer a product of the highest possible quality, the interest of both conservation and of business may dictate a return to the former types of fishing. Such a change may be long delayed or avoided by improvements in the otter trawl itself with a view to reducing the volume of the catch of the smaller-sized fish and lessening the injuries to the fish as landed aboard the
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vessel. In fact, recent investigations indicate that the con- struction of the otter trawl may be so modified as greatly to reduce the number of immature undersized fish taken."
Apparently the disadvantages of the otter trawl have not yet been rectified, for the State Supervisor of Marine Fisheries speaks of its use in this way :42
"One particularly harmful practice which has been stopped in certain areas by legislative enactment is the use of beam and otter trawls in coastal waters. Whatever reasons there may be for obtaining fish in this manner from offshore fishing banks, they do not apply to the near shore areas. Disturbing the bottom along the shores destroys valuable feeding and spawning grounds. Millions of young fish too small for mar- ket are caught and killed in the drags. European countries have long ago realized the damage done to the inshore fish- eries by this method of fishery, and have prohibited it. A good start has been made in prohibiting trawling along the North Shore. It is the Division's opinion that it should be prohibited in all waters within the jurisdiction of the State. Line trawling could be substituted within this area and would result in a great saving of small fish and in providing employ- ment for many more persons.
"Experiments in the development of a new type of trawl, which will permit the escape of fish below commercial size limits without reducing the catch of marketable fish, reported last year, have now been completed, and in October the per- fected type of gear was recommended to the fishing industry through trade journals. It seems likely that fishing companies will adopt the improved trawl with resultant benefit to the industry through the conservation of future supplies."
THE FISHERMAN'S LIFE-When our forefathers put to sea for a week's fishing trip in their pinkies, they would provision the small vessel with "two quarts of molasses, five pounds of fat pork, four pounds of flour, seven pounds of hard crackers (baked by Captain Currier, or "Captain Kier," as he was familiarly called), half a bar-
42. "Report on the Marine Fisheries," 1932.
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rel of water, and a little New England rum, which in those days was considered both victuals and drink.
"The simple stores of the earlier shore-fishermen came presently to include beans, rice, beef and tea and coffee. On Sundays, as an appropriate way to begin the day of rest, for they were strict Sabbatarians, they would have for breakfast all the fried pancakes they could eat. They baked bread in a Dutch oven by the open fire; they cooked cakes on the trencher; with the pothook they hung their kettles on the crane.
"There was a time when they dared not anchor their ves- sels on the Banks lest the tide should draw them under, and a record survives of the meticulous caution with which the first skipper to try it, a hare-brained dare devil in the estimation of the fleet and of his own reluctant crew, prepared for the worst before he let his anchor go. Yet they were bold, inde- pendent men, for all that, as old Captain David Sargent's retort to the witticism of a deep-sea sailor indicates, 'Tell Cap'n Babs'n that I kin find ye way to ye Banks widout a quadrant as weel as he kin wid one'; and in their little pinkies they faced every danger of the sea, and hundreds of them proved their courage by heroic deaths. But it is good to remember them, rather, as they lived, crowding round the fireplace in the pitching, smoky cuddy, at the end of the day, in a blessed fragrance of chowder and coffee.
"They wore the old-time monkey jacket or Guernsey frock, and the tarpaulin hat such as all merchant sailors of the period affected; and for their work they donned the old-fashioned barvel, or leather apron, and stout high-topped fishing boots. They were fishermen as good as any in the world, and as fearless; yet the half-clipper models and clipper models, when they came into vogue, were almost too much for them. The older generation called the man insane who built the first clip- per craft owned in Gloucester, and declared she would never come back to port; but she sailed, nonetheless, with a full crew, who found her fast and able, and her first voyage marked the end of the old-time fleet.
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"In the old days they caught all their fish 'over the rail.' The vessels fitted for the Banks in March, sailed by April, and in a season made two trips. An ordinary fare was thirty or forty thousand fish. The Banker, arriving in Gloucester, would anchor in the inner harbor, and the crew would throw the fish into the 'pound' alongside, where the harbor water rinsed off the pickle and salt, and would carry them ashore in boats and pile them to drain for a week or more, then spread them on the flakes to cure and dry.4.
"It is hard work, and little money. 'Sometimes you think you're going to get rich,' the fishermen say, 'but you never will.' Further, at sea, as on shore, the comical side of life crops out to relieve the monotony of hard work and rough fare, and many a voyage full of storms and bad luck lives in the joyful memory of some peculiarly felicitous catastrophe.
"Once, on a bitter winter day, an old Gloucester fisher- man came below and hung his socks to dry over the galley stove. The vessel rolled and a sock fell into the chowder, and the captain found it in his plate. In deference to the laws of the United States, I must leave the captain's remarks out of my book.
"Another old fisherman sailed with his three sons as his crew. The sons took turns as cook, but none of them could satisfy the old man with a salt-fish dinner. 'Ye freshened it too much,' he would growl. 'When I have a salt-fish dinner, I want salt fish.' So they soaked the fish less and less, and at last they cooked a fish without freshening it at all, but although it was so salt they could not eat it, the old man roared as he started on deck, 'When I have salt-fish dinner, I want salt fish.'
"At that, the three brothers put their heads together and determined to give the old man, for once, 'a SALT FISH din- ner.' They chose a cod that was fairly caked with salt and popped it into the kettle without scraping off a crystal; they squeezed a quart of rock salt into one of the old man's mit- tens and put that into the kettle, too, for good measure. The fish, when they had cooked it, was so heavily salted that no one
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