The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-04-30
CHAT WITH A BO0THBAY CAP,N.
A New York Reporter Goes Aboard a
Maine Mscherel Catcher aud Learns
Some hing About Fishermen,

some ming A0Out ElSneruens
Schooners of the Maine mackerel fleet arriy-
ed in New York on Friday and Saturday last,
near Fulton market A reporter who wanted
to learn something about fishermen went on
board one of the best looking schooners in the
feet, and down into the cabin. A dozen big
men, mostly with brown boards, blue eyes and
big chests. sat around comfortable stove,
looking warm and contented. One yelled,
"Wake up, Cap" and man with brownsr
beard, bluer eyes and much bigger chest
than the others, struggled out of a little berth,
rubbing the sleep from his eyes with one hand
and extending the other to shake with any one
who had come to see him. That was Henry
McKown of Boothbay, skipper of the schoon-
or Henry MorganUhau, and his grasp was very
much like that of door crack. He nodded
at his own men, called by their first names
men who had dropped in from other schooners
to chat, and then said that all that could ba
learned about good boats, could be learned
right aboard the Henry Morgsnthau. She
was a fair specimen of fishing schoonsrs. ex-
cept that she was haDdsomer, faster, and in all
ways better than any other.
The Henry Morgsnthau was as clean as any
yacht, and cleaner than some. Every bit of
woodwork was scrubbed like the floor of
Dutch kitchen; the cabin where the captain
and five men sleep was fixed up with fanciful-
ly sta ined woods, which in turn were covered
with highly colored pictures of young and
charming maidens, all with eyes very wide
open and features very prominent and amia-
BILE. OF the eighteen men who form the
schooner's crew, twelve sleep forward in the
to'c'S'le, and that apartment, which was as
scrupulously neat as the cabin, was rendered
even more cheerful and homelike by the pres
ence OF a big cooking stove, COOK and many
fresh baked custsrd pies, which were scattered
around on potato barrels and berths to cool off.
Ali the men eat down there together, and
the cook "a fisherman six feet talO was hard at
work modelling biscuits out of big sheet of
white dough with the help of cover from q
tin spice box. Barrels of fresh water divided
the available space with barrels of things to
eat, and the presence of 100000 fresh mackerel
packed in ice only few feet away was re-
yealed by the faintest of fishy odors, Just
enough to give things touch of reality. But
this odor furnishes the fishermen with as
much fish IS they want, and they rarely think
OF taking mackerel or any other rish except
present even the name OF mackerel was
enough to disgust them. The catch had been
enormous, and such an unusual number of
boats coming in at once had sent the price of
mackerei down to $3.50 thousand, barely
enough to pay for coming into port. About
the highest price ever paid was 10 cents apiece
or 500 Thousand, and each crew had come
lying home with every stitch of sail lugged On.
fondly hoping to be first and find the price up.
All had got in together, and thus they had
spoiled everything. Even the shad fishermen
were bemoaning their lot, for they said that
with mackerel SO cheap every one would be
buying 1t, and shad would drop down fifty DER
cent The fifty boats of the mackerel fleet
have 100000 or 10 100000 of the fish aboard.
But genuine fishermen are hard to discour-
The Wh0 the hOaf
for what the crew eat, no matter how low the
price of fish may be, and the men receive one
half OF the money taken in, the captain having
first taken out four per cent. of the whole be-
sides his share as one of the crew. The only
expense incurred by the crew is the extra sala-
~ which the cook gets and the price of their
own clothing, which amounts to very little.
Each man can calculate or finishing the mack
erel season with $500 head, with which he
can return to his family and live, il he
chooses, in idleness and luxury until the sea-
son comes round again.
All the mackerel boats in New York, Sun
day, hailed from Portland or Gloucester. The
strongest rivalry exists between every two
schooner5 separately, and between the fleets of
the two ports. No Portland man will admit that
the best Gloucester boat is equal to tho poorest
of his fleet. and every Gloucester man would
profess to consider his life unsafe in q Maine
boat. Speed is the great thing, as everything
depends upon getting into market fret, and it
is faint.hearted crew indeed which will not
risk men and standing rigging to beat rival.
Henry McKown, skipper of the Henry Nor
ganthau, is not the only one who believes his
boat to bs the fastest. His brother, +. Q. Nc
Kown, who commands the James Dyer, Skip
per B. ii. Squirting of tine Lizzie Maud, John
Steevy OF the Matte 7. Tyler, Will Sergeant
of the Fannie Squirting, Jason Greenlaw Of the
Lucy Dyer, Frank Pierce of the Jennie Arm
strong, Ernest johnson Of the james Pool, and
almost every other skipper in the fleet has
little private opinion of his own about his
are Solomon Jacobs and Henry McKown.
Jacobs halls from Gloucester, but is looked up
on there as foreigner, because he has been
there only fifteen or twenty years. A man in
order to be genuine resident Of one of the old