28 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



foundland at the opening of the new century can be seen 

 from the estimate that at this time there were about 200 

 ships that went annually to Newfoundland, and that em- 

 ployment was furnished on shore and aboard the vessels for 

 ten thousand men and boys. It was the custom then, as it 

 later became the custom of the fishermen of New England, 

 to sail for the fishing grounds in the early spring with the 

 vessel fitted out with a supply of provisions, salt and fish- 

 ing tackle sufficient to meet the needs of a voyage lasting 

 for several months. The return home was made in Sep- 

 tember. As fast as the fish were caught during the sum- 

 mer months they were carried ashore and there dressed, 

 salted, cured and pressed by the shore crew. When the 

 vessel sailed from Newfoundland it was with a cargo of 

 fish ready for the market, and sometimes the vessel would 

 sail to a market port for the purpose of selling and discharg- 

 ing the cargo before returning to the home port. The 

 fishermen spent their winters at home, idly spending their 

 hard earned "share-money. 7 



Sir William Monson, writing in 1610 of the value of 

 the discovery of North America to the English people, said, 

 "England may boast that the discovery, from the year 

 aforesaid (1497) to this very day, hath afforded the sub- 

 ject, annually, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, 

 and increased the number of many a good ship, and mar- 

 iners, as our western parts can witness by their fishing in 

 Newfoundland. ' ' 1 



The French were still regarded as formidable rivals of 

 the English in the fisheries, although there seems to have 

 been a decline in the number of French vessels engaged 

 in the enterprise during the early part of the seventeenth 

 century. There must have been more than a hundred of 

 their vessels frequenting the fishing grounds of Newfound- 



i Sir William Monson. Naval Tracts, Book VI, in Churchill's 

 Collection of Voyages and Travels. 



