nce of getting them
fresh to market. It needed a fair and fresh breeze to be sure of it,
and besides with the market for salt mackerel getting stronger all the
time it was good judgment to salt down and fill her up before going
home.

We had been through the same thing before, even with as good a
deckload, but now we were getting near the end of the season. This
trip, then the race, and maybe one more trip after the race, and we
would be done seining. And so we drove things.

Four gangs of four men each took corners in the waist. Each gang had
two keelers--yard square boxes, eight inches or so in depth, and set
up on two or three barrels. Into the keelers the mackerel on deck were
bailed and around them the men gathered, with long-handled torches set
up all about.

All hands came into the dressing--skipper and cook too--and the work
went on. It was one gang against the other, each jealously counting
barrels when they were filled, that full credit might be given for
speed. Sixteen men were accounted for in this way. The seventeenth and
eighteenth were to keep the keelers filled, draw water for pickle from
over the side, roll the filled barrels out of the way--in short, to
help out generally.

It was fine to watch the splitters. One left-handed grab and the
mackerel was in place; flat and smooth, one right-handed slit and he
was laid open the length of his back. Forty-five mackerel a minute
either the skipper, Clancy or Moore could split--that is, pick them
up, place in position, split from nose to tail along the back, and
slide out of the way again. Sixty a minute they could do in spurts, if
somebody would place the mackerel in rows for them.

The busiest man of all was the skipper. He had to keep an eye out for
the course of the Johnnie. Vessels that are dressing fish, vessels on
which the entire crew are soaked in blood, gills, intestines, and
swashing brine, might be allowed privileges, one might think; but no,
they must keep a lookout just the same. On this dark night, the
Johnnie Duncan, though making a great effort--considering that she had
jibs down and wheel in the becket--to stay as she was put, yet would
fall away or come-to, especially when the wind shifted two or three
points at a jump. And just as soon as she did the skipper would
notice it instantly, jump aft and set her right. Generally, to shift
the wheel a few spokes would be enough, but now and then he would have
to give the wheel a good round wh