126 CAPTAIN ZACHARY G. LAMSON 



fortunes were accumulated from whaling 

 and commerce, 1 but the useful, modest and 

 dangerous pursuit of codfishing brought 

 little more than a competence. 



The number of seamen annually em- 

 ployed in the codfishing industry was 

 roughly reckoned at one man for every five 

 or six tons, and as long as the vessels used 



1 In the attempt to secure greater profits from cod- 

 fishing, combinations of this pursuit with whaling and 

 commerce were attempted. In 1802 Dennis, Yarmouth, 

 Harwich and Provincetown each had a few vessels which 

 went to Greenland for whales and on the return trip 

 stopped at the banks and filled up with cod. Mass. 

 Hist. Coll., vol. viii, p. 141. 



In 1807 an experiment was tried in New Haven which 

 at first bid fair to be successful. A company was formed 

 under the name of the "Derby Fish Co." to carry on a 

 combined fishing and trading business. The vessels em- 

 ployed, which were unusually large and fine, took out a 

 fishing license and were also registered so that they could 

 go to the banks, get a fare and then sail directly to Europe 

 or the West Indies, thus saving the return trip and shifting 

 of cargo. The company did a large business and made 

 money, but war came and in 1815 it was obliged to dis- 

 solve. New Haven Hist. Society Papers, vol. 3, p. 

 175. 



