Mower County transcript., 1904-06-15
CAPE ann FISHERMEN
Sometfling About the Fascination and
Perlas of Fishing Along the North
Atlantic Coast.
.~~$ GLOUCESTER, Mass, June 8, 1904.
EDITOR TRANSCRIPT:

.e~ GLOUCESTER, Mass, June 8, 1904.
EDITOR TRANSCRIPT:
=: The deep sea fishermen are again
plying their interrupted calling. True
sone of them may be found on the
banks every month of the year, though
many good craft goes out of COM
mission in the winter season rather
than incur the perils Of the winter
storms, the thick weather and the con-
stant danger from passing steamers.
The Atlantic lines are too careless in
their own security and plow their way
by the shortest course to their port,
often rushing with express speed by
and sometimes over the helpless craft
of the fishermen. The shippers fre-
qnent report of the steamer peril goes
long way to explain the scores of
dismantled vessels which line our har-
Dor in the winter time. a.. w.; =.
Though shore fishing has it's dangers,
they do not compare with those Of the
deep sea. The shore fisherman may
run for shelter in threatening weather
or if his vessel founder, he is reason
ably sure of reaching shore with his
dories. The men upon the banks must
meet the gale, ride it out if possible, if
not, take the grave chances Of an open
boat in an open sea. Every year this
tragedy is enacted many times in our
fishing fleet. One of our citizens who
has now left the sea, on his last trip
rowed five days before reaching the
ice bound shores of Newfoundland. His
dory-mat was dead and his own hands
held the oars only because his frozen
fingers held them with an icy grasp.
Since that fateful winter his life's work
must be met with fingerless hands. =
With the oft repeated fatalities there
seems to be an exciting fascination in
the calling that is irresistible. The
fragments of a shipwrecked crew are
barely recovered from their last fatal
venture when. they are ready to ship
again. +. :.....:.-. 81. :.z..,.s,: ~. u
he calendar of the sea is not less
marked than the migration of birds
upon the land, or the coming of the
season Of buds and flowers. "Cunners
have come" is not more significant to
the shore people north of Cape Cod
than it is a proof that summer is here.
The various schools of fish have their
timely runs and some shippers are as
superior in knowledge of this as up
on the land some students distance all
others in their knowledge of plant life.
The annual run of food fish is so we'll
understood by certain shippers that
they are accepted in advance as high
line of the season and those men are
counted fortunate who secure berths
upon their crafts.
A notable change in the value of fish
sometimes appears. A generation ago
the sword fish was scarcely suggestive
of delicious table morsel. Today it
holds high place with the best. The
dog-fsh is still regarded as a destruc-
tive and worthless pirate of the sea-
The study Of fish economics promises
better things in the future when
bounties will not be needed to control
this marine butcher.
1t is easy to believe that the sea is
the great store house of food for man
and when the voice of inquisitive
science tells us that the multitude OF
animal life found in earth and air is
but two ffths as compared with three
fifths which compose the marine
animal life, we may anticipate broad
field in the study of the sea which has
the promise of larger usefulness.
X, D, T,