THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 85 



position that it maintained until after the Revolution. To 

 the Rev. John Barnard credit should be given for awaken- 

 ing an interest in the fisheries among the people of Marble- 

 head. When he began his ministerial labors among them 

 in 1714 he found not only a lack of first class workmen 

 among them, but also a people who were content to do 

 menial labor and leave "the merchants of Boston, Salem 

 and Europe to carry away the gains.' The town was in 

 debt, the inhabitants a rude, swearing, drunken class. 1 Mr. 

 Barnard associated with the masters of English vessels to 

 learn their methods of business. Then he attempted to 

 arouse his fellowmen to engage in the fishing industry. 

 After considerable trouble and discouragement he finally 

 persuaded a young man named Joseph Swett to put his 

 ideas into practice. The business was a success from the 

 start, and in a short time the young merchant was engaged 

 in a prosperous carrying trade even to European markets. 

 Others followed his example, engaging in fishing or in the 

 carrying trade. The town prospered, the good Mr. Barn- 

 ard lived among them fifty years, long enough to see the 

 morals of the place changed for the better, and the infant 

 industry that he started reach its high-water mark in this 

 seaport town of New England. Before Mr. Barnard's 

 death, Marblehead had the reputation of shipping off more 

 dried codfish than all the rest of New England together. 

 In 1732, which was a good year for the fisheries, Marble- 

 head had about 120 schooners of about fifty tons burden 

 engaged in the fisheries, with about 1,000 men employed 

 from the town. This number did not include seamen who 

 were upon vessels that carried the fish to market. 2 



At the Isles of Shoals about 1730, and afterwards, the 

 fisheries increased to such an extent that three or four ships 

 used to load annually with cargoes of winter and spring 



1 Sabine, pp. 129-130. 



2 Douglass, Summary View, pp. 300-304. 



