A HARBINGER OF THE REVOLUTION 111 



in commercial lines throughout New England. The fish- 

 eries in particular felt the beneficial influences of peaceful 

 conditions. While the annals of the industry are brief 

 for the period, they show that at the opening of the Revolu- 

 tion the fisheries of New England were more extensively 

 carried on and of greater economic importance than at 

 any previous period of colonial history, a condition of 

 prosperity that was not equaled again until after the estab- 

 lishment of the Federal Government. 



During this decade there were twenty towns in Massachu- 

 setts that were engaged in the codfishery. It is esti- 

 mated that for the period as a whole, there were 665 vessels 

 employed in New England in the fishery, of a total of 25,630 

 tons, and carrying 4,405 men. The fisheries were carried 

 on most extensively in Massachusetts. In Maine, the num- 

 ber of vessels employed was 60, of a tonnage of 1,000 for all, 

 carrying 230 men; the balance of the fishery belonged to 

 Massachusetts. Marblehead was still the leading town, al- 

 though Gloucester ranked a close second. The other prin- 

 cipal fishing towns were Plymouth, Salem, Chatham, Ips- 

 wich and Manchester. The state of the codfishery in New 

 England, from 1765 to 1775, is shown in the table on the 

 following page. 1 



From this table it can be seen that each fishing ves- 

 sel averaged about forty tons burden and carried a 

 crew of seven men. One-half the number of men were 

 required on shore to cure the fish. It required 350 vessels 

 to carry the fish to market, each vessel carrying eight hands. 

 There were, then, between 9,000 and 10,000 men engaged in 

 the codfishery, or in business relating to it, at the outbreak 

 of the Revolution. The value of the catch, or its extent, 

 cannot be ascertained accurately. Based upon the state 

 of the New England fisheries in 1763, the value of the cod- 

 fishery in 1775 may be estimated at about $1,300,000, and 



i Sabine, p. 174. 



