Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-04-28
CAPE COD FISHERMEN AT
CAPE MAY
(By e. p. Sites, Jr., in the
Cape May Wave)

Peoples, OF the gloucester dChSI
schooner Lafayette; Captain Nicker-
son, of the schooner Restless" and
Captain Murphy, of the schooner
"Wesley Senate"
When l asked the hardy New Eng
land fishermen if they were going to
bring the cup back to the United
States in the International Fisher
mems Race, next fall, they all Choir
used that you can bet your last dol
lar and mortgage your house that the
blue noses will not keep the cup an
other year.
Three boats are now being fitted
out for the race. The Puritan" n
hundred and thirty-eight feet over all,
hailing out of Gloucester; the MAY
flower" and the Yankee" n hum
dred and forty-fve ~footers, hailing
out of Boston.
1t is dollars to doughnuts, said the
deep sea shippers that Marty welsh
will coach the shippers of the three
boats in the elimination race so well
hat the boat that is chosen will be
we'll yersed in the tricks of h Can
adams so that the cup will be brought
back to America.
Captain Peoples then became talka-
tive on his forty-two years expert
ences at sea. He said that the hard-
est that he had ever seen the WIND
blow was off Georges Bank, when it
blew ninety miles an hour.
Captain Peoples said that one OF the
funniest things in all of his expert
ences at sea was off the Grand Banks
two years ago when a big blue shark
that was easily eighteen feet long,
tried to swallow a big piece OF ice,
thinking it was food. The skipper
said that the big fish would swim up
to the ice and sink his teeth into 1t,
and the ice would roll over nj over
giving the big deep sea fish the time
of his life.
When asked about mackerel fishing
the three captains all agreed that II
was one of the biggest CANDLES IN the
world. They pointed out the fact that
one of the two-masted wind TANNERS
fitted out could not be built for less
IMAM seventeen lIOuooAA0 80
out nets. Each boat carries from
thirty to fifty nets. These nets cost
fourteen dollars and fifty cents each
this year, but last year they cost
twenty-five dollars. Then the SKIP
per pointed to the fact that each
schooner must carry from four to
seven dories, which are built by one
firm in Massachusetts and these small
dories that are not over fourteen feet
long, will outlive almost any sea. TWO
men man these little craft, but are
seldom lost, but Captain Peoples SAID
that the schooners are sometimes cut
down off Georges Bank by transat-
lantic liners in the heavy logs OF
spring when the icebergs are coming
south. The shippers said that the Ice
This year would be very heavy on ac-
count Of the severe winter to the
north of the banks.
The schooners are operated on a CO.
operative basis, forty per CEN to the
boats and sixty per cent to the crews.
Seven men are usually carried on the
schooners.
There are sixty Italian boats and
eighty American manned craft in Cape
May harbor fishing out of the harbor.
The boats go about ninety to one
hundred miles off shore and about
thirty-five miles south of Winter
Quarter Lightship while fishing out OF
Cape May harbor. When they leave
here their next point is Sea Girt, and
then Newport and New Bedford.
Captain Peoples said that the Amer
lean people did not eat enough fish,
while in the old days fish was the
staple article of food. Americans eat
seventeen pounds per capita, while the
Japanese eat one hundred pounds to a
person in a year..
The shippers were all loud in their
praise of the coast guard service
along the coast and said that when
they learned that Captain ]. j. Hut
son, of the coast guard cutter Kicko-
poo, had been stationed at Cape May,
they sent up a loud cheer when the
news reached Gloucester. Captain
Hutson is the idol of fishermen both
vi Lie AIldAIlC VI L HSAhO NOSSN'
is the hero of the wreck of a cutter in
the ice off Alaska some years ago.
Many thrilling experiences were
told by the shippers about fishing.
They catch in their nets anything
from porpoises to sword fish. This,
they say, is the most thrilling, with
the exception of keeping out of the
way of big whales in the little dories
off the Grand Banks off New Found
land when they are fishing for cod in
winter. Captain Peoples said that he
had fished on the Grand Banks and on
Georges Bank for Goldfish when it was
eleven below zero.
In summer time and at this season
of the year each n of the fishing
boats carry about five tons of ice and
as soon as the mackerel are caught
they are packed in it.
CAPTAIN Peoples said that the boats