98 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



they were no doubt rejoiced on the 6th of September, 1628, 

 when the ship with Endicott and company made its appear- 

 ance, which had been sent with the resolution to erect " a 

 new colony on the old foundation." The next year it was 

 followed by others, and in 1630 by the great emigration 

 under Winthrop, which firmly and permanently planted the 

 colony of Massachusetts. 



" Marbleharbour," now Marblehead, became a fishing-port, 

 so celebrated even then, that in 1629, in a letter written that 

 year, it was stated that " sixteen hundred bass were taken 

 in one draught, while the schools of mackerel were so numer- 

 ous as to extort exclamations of astonishment from all be- 

 holders." "In 1633 Matthew Craddock, the governor of 

 the Massachusetts company, and others, had fishing-stages at 

 Marblehead, and sent their vessels and men there to catch 

 and cure the fish, returning with their cargoes at the close 

 of the season." 



Gloucester became an incorporated town in the second 

 month of 1642 ; " and it is an interesting fact that within the 

 first year of her incorporation Gloucester built her first ves- 

 sel." Gloucester also has the honor of building the first 

 schooner. 



" Capt. Andrew Robinson had built in 1713 a vessel which 

 he had mastered and rigged in a peculiar manner, the same 

 as the schooners of the present day. When launched, the 

 peculiar skipping motion she made as she glided into the 

 water from the stocks caused one of the bystanders to ex- 

 claim, ' Oh, how she scoons ! ' Robinson instantly replied, 

 while dashing a bottle of rum against her bows, * A scooner 

 let her be.' Since that time the same class of vessels have 

 been called schooners." * And would it not be well for some 

 antiquarian to ascertain if the skipping motion she made 

 when she entered the water did not obtain for her master 

 the name of " skipper " ? a title still continued in the fishing- 

 schooners. " About seventy of these ' scooners ' were owned 

 in Gloucester in 1741 ; and nearly all of them engaged in 

 fishing on the Grand Banks, whence, after securing their 

 cargo, they would go to Lisbon, Bilboa, or Cadiz, and bring 

 back wines, salt," etc. 



Just prevoius to the Revolutionar}*^ war, five hundred and 



* Babson's History of Gloucester. 



