The Portland daily press., 1889-08-14
A FISHERMAN'S LUCK.
Diverse Fortune of TWO Portland
Seiner..
One Takes Hundreds of Dollars
Worth Of Mackerei,
And Another Loses as Much Through
Broken Net.

There is a vast meaning in the proverblal
saving "a fisberman's luck" and none ap-
preciate the saying more than the nshermen
themselves. This year, as was also last
wear. has been thus far very discouraging
and unfortunate one for the 'seiners." The
seiners are the fishing schooners that fitted
ont last spring for the mackerel fisheries.
They started out the first of June with the
hope of retrieving what they lost by bad
luck" last year. Quite number of vessels
OF the Portland fishing feet went SEEMING. All
through the months of June and July, and
up to date the seiners have been sailing up
and down the coast, hoping to run across
a school of mackerel If big school of fish
could be found, enough might be taken in
couple of days to net the vessel from $4,000
to $1,000 gaining each member of the crew
several hundred dollars for his share, for
half of the profits go to the vessels owners
and the other half is divided among the
crew. Two or three ''big hauls' of macker
ell in season is sufficient to make the fish
ing profitable business, and SO the vessel
owners and the hardy fishermen have been
willing to run the hazard of mackerel sein-
ing with the hope Of "making it pay" Thus
far the mackerel feet. as a whole, has met
with unprecedented misfortune. Good
mackerel were never so high since the war
as they are now. When a seiner at this sea-
son of the year takes lot of fish there is
great rejoicing. AT present there evidently
are very few mackerel upon the New Eng
land coast, but should a few big schools set
In upon our shores the vessels for
tunate enough to capture them would make
enough at the present prices to more than
offset all they have lost In the last two years.
One can easily imagine how great would be
the excitement aboard these mackerel
hunters should they today in their weariless
search for fish, suddenly run upon big
school of the beauties 1t would be almost
as good as discovering gold mine. because
big net full of first-class mackerel will
now sell for several thousand dollars. One
schooner of the Portland fleet met with luck
last week for the first time this season. 1t
was the Henry Morganthau, owned by W. s.
Jordan & Co. The vessel is commanded by
Capt II. M. McKown Of DOothbay Harbor,
and carries all told crew of II men. A
week ago last Monday she sailed away to
| try "a fsherman's luck" again. OF course
| the captain did not know where to 20 for
mackerel, but he thought be would cruise
| away to the eastward and see If anything
could be found in that direction. Monday
and Tuesday they proceeded. and as usual
| saw no signs of fish. But on Wednesday,
when about Is miles east-northeast Of Mt.
| Desert, the cry of "mackerel!' was given.
| OF course the excitement of the crew who
had been cruising all summer without earn
| ing a cent was intense. They got out
| their nets in GREATNESS haste and with all
eagerness proceeded to surround the fish,
which were unusually fine ones, worth more
than $50 per barrel. At one school they
took 147 wash barrels full of as fine mackerel
as ever Topped on the deck Of schooner.
There was great excitement and great re-
joicing. Here was "a fisherman's luck"
All day and late at night they worked, TAX
ing in all 16l shipping barrels of fish worth
more than $50 per barrel. When Thursday
dawned no more mackerel were to be seen.
All that day and all day Friday the vessel
fingered in that vicinity with the hope of
making another haul, but they found no
more fish and were bound homeward Satur-
day, arriving here yesterday, having been
| gone just week and one day. The vessel
| stocked in that one week over $4,000 and
| each member of the crew will receive as his
share Of the profits over 500 for the weeks
work. This certainly is very good pay, in
asmuch as the crew were really at work only
| two days out Of the week in taking and
dressing the fish. Captain McKown said to
| PRESS reporter when asked what he
thought of the prospect Of mackerel coming
in this month, that the outlook is not
bright. "There is nothing encouraging"
said he.
Ths schooner George Washington, of this
port, came very near taking a big lot Of
mackerel. She has just arrived home and
reports having run upon a good sized school
of the fish. The men got their net out and
surrounded the fish, They had several thou
sand dollars worth of fish in the net. and the
hardy fishermen, in great excitement at their
| sudden and unexpected good fortune, were
| pulling them in. In their excitement they
| pulled too hard, the net broke, and they
| saw hundreds of dollars worth of fish get
away. OF the whole school only about eight
barrels were captured. Here also was "a
fsherman's luck"
The mackerel catch of the schooner Henry
Morganthau is by far the largest of any
made by Portland vessel this season, and
| amounts to about as much as the total catch
| OF all the other seiners of the Portland aeet
for the season.