THE RENAISSANCE OF THE FISHERIES 147 



with great difficulty from the effects of the war; in others 

 developing beyond previous volumes of business and form- 

 ing the nucleus of a new industry for the majority of the 

 inhabitants of some towns. 



The first vessel sent out from Newburyport to engage 

 in the Labrador codfishery was in 1794, and for eighty-five 

 years scarcely a fishing season was allowed to pass without 

 one or more vessels being sent. In 1806, this fleet num- 

 bered 45 sail; in 1817, it numbered 65, including sixty 

 schooners, one brig, and four sloops. 1 A mercantile Com- 

 pany was formed in 1816-17 for prosecuting the bank 

 fishery, and paid good dividends the first year of its estab- 

 lishment. 



Essex had forty vessels engaged in the bank and shore 

 fisheries in 1814, chiefly in the latter. The best account 

 of the condition of the fisheries of Gloucester immediately 

 after the Revolution is given by Babson, who says: "No 

 means exist for ascertaining how many vessels engaged in 

 the, bank fishery immediately upon the return of peace. 

 One statement says that sixty were employed in 1788 and 

 fifty in 1789. Another, in giving an account of fish caught 

 by vessels from the town in the fall of the last-named year, 

 shows that forty-four vessels took 426,700 fish. . . . 

 Concerning the revival of the fishery, it may be further 

 stated that the average earnings of the fishermen were so 

 small that they were kept in a condition of poverty. It is 

 not surprising, therefore, that the number of vessels en- 

 gaged in it decreased from year to year till 1804, when we 

 find that only eight of more than thirty tons burden were 

 engaged in the Gloucester fisheries. This small number 

 had probably dwindled to less in 1819, when an effort was 

 made to put new vigor into the business by the establish- 

 ment of a corporation to carry it on. . . . 



' ' The shore fishery of Gloucester had risen to some impor- 



i Goode, II, p. 135. 



