148 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



tance before the Revolution, and upon the return of peace 

 the enterprise of the people was again directed to this 

 pursuit, to which some encouragement was given by early 

 acts of the General Government. In 1792, one hundred 

 and thirty-three Chebacco boats, measuring in the aggregate 

 1,549 tons, were engaged in it. These boats resorted to 

 the ledges and shoal grounds near the coast, where they 

 found, at different seasons, cod, hake, and pollock, and 

 pursued their fishery with such success that in twelve 

 years from the last-named date the number of boats en- 

 gaged in it had increased to about two hundred, while 

 the tonnage had nearly doubled. At this time the boat 

 fishing was chiefly carried on at Sandy Bay and other 

 coves on the outside of the cape ; but the advantage of a 

 good harbor for their large boats drew a few people 

 from these localities to settle on Eastern Point soon after 

 1800. The business, however, was not profitable enough 

 even with additional encouragement from the General 

 Government, to attract many new adventurers, or even to 

 stimulate much of the enterprise of the old ones, and it 

 had a slow growth for the quarter of a century, the annual 

 average increase of tonnage during that time having been 

 only about one hundred and twenty-five tons. ' ' 1 



A brief statement of the condition of the fisheries at 

 Salem shows that between 1786 and 1799 the annual 

 average of bank fishing vessels was only twenty, of a ton- 

 nage of 1,300 tons burden, and employing one hundred 

 and sixty men. 2 No good account exists of the Mar- 

 blehead fisheries previous to 1815, although they are 

 reported as being at their best during the few years 

 preceding the Embargo Act of 1807, when large 

 cargoes of fish were exported annually to European and 

 other markets. About fifty schooners went to the banks 



1 Babson, pp. 383-385. 



2 Goode, Sec. II, p. 701. 



