37 



STATEMENT, 



Showing the Number and Tonnage of Vessels of Massachusetts em- 

 ployed in the Cod and Mackerel Fisheries June 30, 1873, and 

 June 30, 1883, from reports of Register of Treasury, with com- 

 parisons by David W. Low of Gloucester, Mass., in relation 

 to their decline under non-protective Treaties. 



CUSTOMS DISTRICT. 



Gain 



in 



Number 



under 

 20 Tons 



10 yrs. 



Newbury port, 



Gloucester, 



Salem and Beverly, . . 



Marblehead, 



Boston &Charlestown, 



Plymouth, 



Barnstable, 



Nantucket, 



Edgartown, 



New Bedford, 



Fall River, 



34 



7 



14 



11 



3 



20 



The above shows that the Massachusetts fishing fleet of 1883 was 

 270 vessels of over 20 tons less than in 1873, a decrease of 29.9 per 

 cent, in vessels, and 17.6 per cent, in tonnage in 10 years of the 

 "Washington Treaty," also of 10 vessels less, under 20 tons, or 

 4 per cent. ; a loss of employment to over 3,000 fishermen whose 

 products would have made work for mere on shore, in curing, pack- 

 ing in barrels or boxes, transportation and supplying food and clothes 

 to the workmen and their families. Had these 280 vessels been in the 

 fleet of 1883, as they would have been (and more too) had the fisheries 

 been protected in the rights which they had earned and received, 

 instead of unjustly taken from them b} r the treaties of 1816, 1854 

 and 1873, acts of our own Government, their catch of fish would 

 have added to the products of American enterprise and labor an 

 amount of more value than the value of all the codfish and mackerel 



