ECONOMIC SOCIAL 115 



Britain for the year 1807 did not exceed 

 135,394 tons. 1 IS we allow that the work- 

 men of the two countries were equally 

 efficient, then the ship-building interest of 

 the United States must have employed at 

 least ten thousand ship carpenters in 1811. 

 If to the number of carpenters we add 

 the blacksmiths, coopers, sail makers, 

 block makers, painters, rope makers, and 

 common laborers, which ship-building ne- 

 cessitated, the importance of the industry 

 may be imagined. 



The number of seamen employed in the 

 United States in any one year from 1800 

 to 1812 is evidently a matter of guess, since 

 estimates vary greatly. Mr. Gray of Salem 

 and Messrs. Loring and Parsons of Boston, 

 in a hearing before a committee of the Mas- 

 sachusetts House of Representatives, 2 all 

 testified that, taking large and small vessels 

 together, one seaman to every six tons of 

 shipping was a fair average. If this was 



1 Pitkin, p. 430. 



2 Hearing before a committee in 1813. 



