286 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



and after the beginning of the war there was also a very 

 large body of fish of the herring family on the New Eng- 

 land coast. Since 1885, however, the tonnage employed 

 in the fisheries has fallen off to such a marked degree that 

 a revival of the system of tonnage-bounty would be a 

 desideratum. 



During the last quarter century the fisheries of New 

 England have declined in a remarkable manner. This de* 

 cadence has been most marked with the offshore fisheries. 

 They are the kind that require larger vessels, that are 

 most hazardous, and that develop able seamen. Our fish- 

 eries have been the nursery of our navy in the past. The 

 capture of Louisburg, the naval exploits of the Revolu- 

 tion, the fishermen-gunners of the privateers of the war 

 of 1812, as well as the naval history of the Civil and 

 Spanish wars afford most glorious proof of that fact. The 

 shipbuilding industry and our merchant marine date bax?k 

 to the fisheries for their origin and development. So that 

 if the fisheries had no reason of their own for protec- 

 tion and development, their important relation to our navy 

 and merchant marine, in the past and in the present time, 

 would afford ample grounds for their continuance, even at 

 the cost of national assistance. 



The amount of tonnage employed in an industry of 

 the sea is an index to the general prosperity of that in- 

 dustry. The tonnage of the merchant marine employed in 

 the cod and mackerel fisheries since 1866 shows a gen- 

 eral decline when compared with the tonnage employed in 

 these industries during the Civil War period. The ton- 

 nage reached its highest mark in the history of the fish- 

 eries in 1862, when 204,197 tons were employed in the 

 deep-sea fisheries. The registry for the last three years of 

 the war averaged about 146,000 tons annually. A decline 

 began even in the last years of the war, and since that 

 time the total tonnage has reached beyond the 100,000 



