HISTORICAL EEFEUENCES: MASSACHUSETTS. (J89 



GLOUCESTKR AT THK KI:GIXXIX<; OF TIIK EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. In 1700 the number of inhabitants was seven 

 hundred, who were mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits, the fisheries being carried on liy people from other set- 

 tlements. About this time commenced a season of activity in ship-building. A number of ships ami brigantiues were 

 built for merchants in Boston, and several vessels were also built for use in the shore fisheries off Gloucester. In 1713 

 a vessel with new rig was built at Gloucester and called a schooner from a remark made at the launching, "Oh, how 

 she scoous! 1 ' The builder, Mr.' Robinson, at once said, "A scoonerlet her be," and that name has ever since attached 

 to this class of vessels. 



CAPE ANN FISHERMEN VISIT CAPE SABLE. "The hostility of the French and Indians," says Babson, "along the 

 whole eastern coast, as far as Cape Sable, had for many years rendered the pursuit of this business in that quarter 

 one of great danger. A few vessels, however, visited that coast from Salem and other places, but, Gloucester fisher- 

 men do not appear to have repaired thither till about the time of the conquest of Nova Scotia by the English in 1710. 

 That auspicious event did not secure them from molestation, for Rev. John White, of our church, writing in 171 1, 

 says: 'The enemy make fearful depredations upon our poor fishermen at (.'ape Sable'; and two years afterward three 

 men were taken from two of our sloops that were fishing there. Another hazard attended the fishery from which no 

 human care can afford certain protection. This was early experienced by our fishermen, and the havoc of their elas* 

 by storms, which has since so often shrouded the town in mourning, imparts a melancholy interest to nearly every 

 period of our history. The first loss by shipwreck we have recorded is that of a new sehoouer while on a, fishing voy- 

 age at Sable Island, in 1716. In October, the next year, four of a fleet of seven were lost on the passage from the fish- 

 ing grounds, and to these were added, in 17-22, another at Sable Island, involving, in each case, the loss of all tlio 

 crew." 



GROWTH OF THE FISHERIES, 17-22 TO 17-41. "The history of our fishery," continues Babson, "from this time tn 

 the Revolutionary War, for want of particular information concerning it, may be briefly related. The vessels wilh 

 which the business was first carried on were the sloops built in the town. A few schooners were added about 1?-J>, 

 of which class it is probable that the 'old bankers,' of recent times, were nearly exact representations. Between 17-JU 

 and 1730 as many vessels appear to have been fitted out from Squam River as from the harbor, but after the last date 

 the preponderance was certainly with the latter place, whore it has since remained. An account of those of Nathaniel 

 Parsons has been given on a previous page. His was the largest business of his time of which we have any knowl- 

 edge. Next to him and a few years later we find that Elias Davis was a merchant of the most, extensive and suc- 

 cessful trade, leaving at his death in 1734 six schooners, a wharf, and fishing-room at Canso, and a large amount <>i 

 other property. 



"In 17-11 we learn that above seventy fishing vessels belonged to the town; but the condition of the business hero 

 at that time, as reported by Rev. John White, was not such as another authority ' states it to have been iu the Colony 

 generally, nor docs it appear to have been prosperous for any considerable time during the next twenty years. In- 

 deed, it is a matter of wonder that the discouragements of that period did not cause a total abandonment of the busi- 

 ness. But, notwithstanding the wars between France and England, and the consequent annoyance and occasional 

 capture of our vessels by the cruisers of the enemy, and the demand for men for the provincial armies and for the 

 naval service, the fishery was still pursued. The truth is, it had now become, the basis of a profitable foreign trade-, 

 for the. maintenance of which the merchants of the town would willingly encounter great risks, and could even afford 

 to bear considerable losses. 



CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES FROM 1763 TO 1779. According to Babson, " the peace of 1763 secured to our father* 

 unmolested use of the fishing grounds, and from this time to the Revolution they carried on the business with energy 

 and success, though a terrible disaster [nine vessels with their crews were lost iu 1766], which inflicted a heavy blow 

 upon the town, occurred in the meantime. We know uothiug of the relative importance of the bank and shore fish- 

 eries during this period ; but it seems that the latter were almost wholly confined to Sandy Bay and the cove on tlie> 

 outside of the cape, while the chief seat of the former was at the harbor. Neither can we ascertain the number of 

 vessels and boats engaged in the business in any year except the last of the term here embraced. That employed iu 

 the bank fishery must have been quite large, for nineteen schooners, as we have seen, sailed at one time in the fatal 

 year of 1766. An 'estimate of the number of fishing vessels from Massachusetts' before the war, supposed to havv 

 been made by a merchant of the town several years after that event, gives seventy-five as belonging to Gloucester, 

 agreeing nearly with the number stated by our selectmen in 1779 to have been owned here iu 1775, which was eighty, 

 of an aggregate burthen of 4,000 tons. The average value of these vessels, we learn from another source, was about 

 300. The same estimate says that there were owned at Sandy Bay seventy boats, which landed 160 quintals offish 

 each; but this evidently exaggerates. 



" Of the fisheries of Massachusetts for any period, from the beginning to the present time, we lack full reliable, 

 statistics. The earliest table I have seen is one of the cod fishery, ' from the year 1765 to 1775.' That gives, in rela- 

 tion to the Gloucester fisheries, ' vessels annually employed, 146; tonnage, 5,530 ; number of men, 888 ;' an exaggera- 

 tion, without doubt, in each case. In a covenant for mutual insurance of the bankers in 1774, forty-five schoouers 

 are entered; but those of Daniel Pearce and Winthrop Sargeut, two principal merchants of the town, and of others 



1 Hon. L. Sabim>, in his Report on the American Fisheries, p. 131. Mr. White's account is contained in a letter to the Governor ami 

 Council in relation to a call upon the town for aid to the sufferers by a great fire in Charleston, S. C., as follows : 



"Almost onr whole dependence, under God, is upon our navigation ami fishf ry ; :m<l our titlirr Navigation on or.r Fishery: and that has 

 ao for failed l>'. reason of ye smallness of ye price of llsli, and y;> dram ess of salt, bivad, and craft, that, of abnvr sevrnty fishing vessels thete 

 :u< I, \v, if any. above ten in that business. Our p<-oplt- aiv scattered abroad in tin' world to p't their bn -al . man\ ]nvssc<l, many serving as 

 Volunteers iu his majesty's service; and the cry of many f.>r nrr.^sa] i.<s U very affecting. And wr h.ivr bail tbivi contributions fur ye relief 

 of tin- poor tin- last year in our congregation, and other Families are very pressing for relief." 



44: G RF 



