Fishermen 1888 Puget Sound - Washington Poster

Fishing crew of the Oscar and Hattie Schooner offloading 50,000 lbs of Halibut at the Tacoma Washington Territory docks on September 20, 1888. Halibut fishing became depleted in the Atlantic, so the Oscar Hattie and two other fishing schooners of Gloucester, Massachusetts made the trip around South America's Cape Horn to try their hand at Halibut fishing in the Pacific. They fished Flattery Bank near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and discovered rich Halibut grounds. Of course, the Makah Indians already had been fishing the site for generations. The Oscar and Hatties catch was loaded on Northern Pacific Railroad cars for a transcontinental trip to Boston. This demonstrated that pacific commercial fishing could, indeed, be profitable and an industry was born. On a final note, fishing in those days must have been a brutal occupation that required strength and perserverance. Look at the size of some of the men's forearms in this photo.