The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-10-07

y
E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound,
which is made from roots and herbs,
has been the standard remedy for
female ills. In almost every commu-
nifty you will find women who have
been restored to health by Lydia E.
Pinkham's Vegetable Compound.
in the West Indies and in South America
and many thousands of barrels and hogs
heads were shipped to these places every
year. Then they were always to be found
in the country towns in the interior and
the West took all they could secure.
FLYERS IN MACKEREL.
MANY men, like myself, specialized
in them to certain extent. When
mackerel was quoted at low price, for
there was a great fuctuation in prices,
we bought them up and stored them for
higher prices, which sometimes came
within few days and sometimes not for
month or more. There were years, of
course, when fewer fish were caught than
in other years and this resulted in the
fiuctuation in prices.
"The mackerel go south in the winter,
or when the cold weather begins, and
come north in the spring and summer
months. l do not know just how far
south they run, but when the mackerel
business was at its best the seiners start
ed away from here in May and met the
fish off Nantucket when they were on
their way north. Then the fish were
thin and not considered as good as they
were later in the season when they had
become fat. Their spawning season is in
July and August and they came north to
spawn and staid about here until into
October. During all Of this time they
were followed and seined, during every
daylight hour and every day in the week.
Half OF the catch went to the vessel and
its owners and the other half to the cap
tain and the crew. Usually the captain
got commission on all the fish caught,
and usually he was small owner in the
vessel also. The men got no such re-
! turns for their work as did the Monte
gan fishermen who came in here the
other day, but they did well. At the end
OF season they would get $500 OF $500
each and sometimes there We're vessels
which shared more.
There were lucky ships and lucky
shippers, and usually those with the rep
utatlon tor good fortune never had much
trouble in getting the best men and a
ence between success and failure. The
fishermen then, as they are today, were
the best seamen in the world, only at the
time speak of about all of them were
Americans while today few Of them are.
No country in the world could equal the
Yankee fishermen, or the Yankee sailors,
and one heard very little about the de-
cadence OF the merchant marine or the
lack OF sailors.
SOLD FOR A SONG.
Before 1860 a good fishing schooner
could be built for about $4,000. They
were then built about 80 tons, but later
the size increased as did the price. A
schooner which could be built for So, 500
in 1855, or before the war, could not be
duplicated for $4,000 after the war be-
gan and the price to build vessel was
never as low again. The property was
considered very good then and returned
immense profits up to 1885, and then the
slump began and l have known schoon-
er which was sold for $500 to lose money
after that time year after wear and
finally to be sold for $500 while the own
ers Of it had paid out the original amount
again and again in assessments. Some
of us saw the slump coming and were
fortunate enough to sell out all of the
vessel property we had before the great
decline came, but it ruined many men, not
few of them right here in Portland.
81 have known of vessel costing
81, 1000 to more than pay for herself in
three years and then to be sold for $500,
but that was when the fishing business
was at its best. At one time, following
a storm, have counted over 200 mack
erel seiners at anchor in this harbor and
it was a beautiful sight to see them,
when the weather cleared, get underway
and stand out ship channel, a marine
picture people nowadays do not have
chance to witness. 1t surpasses any
yacht club cruise | have ever seen and it
seemed as though the sea outside was
white with their sails.
''Some of the men engaged in the bust
ness here then whom | can recall off
hand were c. A. Dyer, Abial M. Smith,
John Chase, Henry Gushing, the Sawyer
brothers and Chase and Themes. 1t was
big thing for Portland and for all kinds
of business. When the mackerel fleet
was in port things were pretty lively
about the streets in the neighborhood Of
sailortown, for 200 or 300 men with pock-
cts full of money usually made things
hum while they were on shore.
ON THE GRAND BANKS.
''In the winter time many of these
vessels went to the Grand Banks for the
cod and haddock fishing and often made
good trips. This was also great bust
ness of which there is very little going
on here today. But it was and is dam
gerous business and great many vessels
were lost with their ,a4, entire crews; ! re-
0f CT in Hchipnr 1yoceol INV,
manded by man who lived at Long
Island and we weathered great gale
there in which several Portland vessels
were lost with all hands. Right in the
height of the gale we broke our tiller and
the schooner was almost unmanageable,
but after "a hours Of the toughest wealth
er / have ever known. when we exnected