THE GROWTH ALONG THE COAST 185 



the water telescope for locating schools of cod on the shal- 

 low bottoms and a seine for catching the fish after locat- 

 ing them. 1 



The fishermen of Beverly centered their attention on 

 the codfishery. The mackerel fishery never rose to a place 

 of importance. As early as 1832 there were between 40 

 and 45 fishing vessels belonging to the town. Seven years 

 later the number had risen to 49, averaging seventy-four 

 tons each, the aggregate value, excluding the outfit, being 

 $100,000. These vessels employed 306 Beverly hands and 

 112 others. The aggregate bounty on vessels owned in 

 Beverly in 1839 was $17,040. 2 The value of fishery prod- 

 ucts for the year 1845 was $85,424. At the middle of the 

 century there were 75 vessels from Beverly engaged in fish- 

 ing, manned by 1,200 to 1,400 fishermen, mostly of New 

 England birth. Subsequently, the fishery declined slowly, 

 except for a short period of revival during the last three 

 years of the war. In 1869, twenty-seven schooners em- 

 ployed 350 men, who caught 32,000 quintals of cod and 

 halibut, valued at $200,000. 



Salem played an unimportant part in the fisheries. The 

 town was fifth in the State in the amount of mackerel 

 packed in 1820, and in 1825, the amount for the latter 

 year being 11,460 barrels. In 1836, there were only four- 

 teen vessels, carrying 130 men, engaged in the fisheries. 

 The vjiiue of the product of the codfishery for the year 

 was $16,552, and of mackerel, $21,450. Only three ves- 

 sels were engaged in the codfishery in 1845. 3 



Marblehead, ranking first for years previous to the Revo- 

 lution, took a less prominent place in the fisheries after 

 1818. In 1829, about fifty vessels averaging sixty tons 

 fitted for bank fishing. Fifty-seven vessels in the cod and 



1 Goode, Sec. II, p. 135. 



2 Hunt, Vol. I, p. 182. 



8U. S. Fish Com., Report, 188J, pp. 259, 260. 



