Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — Mackerel Catching Off Cape Ann. [ARTICLE]

Mackerel Catching Off Cape Ann.

The mackerel-catchers are vessels of the same rig, tonnage and lading as the cod-fisher, except that in them the seine takes place of the trawl. The acene of their operations is rather wider, too, as they meet the mackerel on their appearance in the spring as far south as Virginia, and follow t|em to the shores of Greenland and Iceland. George’s Bank, in the open se*. about 150 miles off Cape Ann, and the Dominion waters are, however, the favorite fishing-grounds. When one of these vessels reaches the spot where her prey may be taken, a sharp watch is kept for the schools, which may be seen playing about on the surface; old salts aver that they can smell a school of mackerel as well as menhaden. When one is sighted, the listlessness of the crew givea way to animation. The purse-seine, coiled on the after hatch, is hastily thrown into the seine-boat, which has been towing astern since the vessel left port. Two dories are let down, and, in company with the seineboat, rbw out toward the school. At the proper time the seine-boss gives the word, the two dories take each an end of the seine, some 250 fathoms in length, and in three minutes inclose the school. Then the scene is “passed,” and the schooner is signaled to come along-side. There are 500 barrels of large, fat mackelel in the “purse.” The method of transferring them to the vessel is much like that practiced by the'inenhadeh steamers. A large dipnet, with long handle, worked by tackling, is let down intO'-the struggling mass, and throws them on the vessel’s deck by the half-barrel. This done, the operation of “dressing down” begins by throwing the catch into a square trough; twelve men of the crew of fourteen then attack them with knives, dexterously open them by a slit down the back, and clean them at a stroke; they are then washed, assorted into various grades according to size and fatness, and packed in barrels, one barrel of Liverpool salt being required for four barrels of fish. So rapidly do they work that forty-seven barrels have been cleaned and packed in two hours and a half. Meantime two men have been overhauling the seine, repairing it where a shark or bluefish has made a rent, and the men are ready for another haul—perhaps to work for hpurs without securing a. barrel.