44 EARLY QUARANTINE ARRANGEMENTS OF SALEM. 



the tardy movements of Congress, at once applied him- 

 self to extemporizing a navy. To this end he sent agents 

 to Salem, Beverly, Marblehead and other ports to search 

 out able seamen and fast sailing craft, and commissioned 

 these to " take and seize all such vessels as are employed 

 for the purpose of aiding and assisting the ministerial 

 troops or navy." We fitted out in this war at least one 

 hundred and fifty-eight private armed vessels from Salem 

 carrying probably 2000 guns, and of this fleet, which 

 brought in about four hundred prizes, we lost fifty-four 

 sail. The tonnage of Salem declined from 9,223 tons 

 in 1771 to 8,652 tons in 1781, but it increased so rapidly 

 after the close of the war as to have nearly doubled in 

 a decade and to have reached in 1800, twenty-five 

 thousand, and in 1807, forty-three thousand six hundred 

 tons. Our brilliant commercial period dates from the 

 close of the Revolutionary War, and doubtless the impe- 

 tus which our extensive privateering gave to seaman- 

 ship and ship-building explains its origin. The adoption 

 of the Federal Constitution seems to have given it another 

 impulse, and probably the turbulence prevalent in Europe, 

 during the wars of the French Eevolution, helped our 

 commerce. Until the war of 1812, it left no check. Be- 

 fore 1789, Elias Hasket Derby's barque "LightHorse" had 

 opened American trade with St. Petersburg, leaving port 

 June 15, 1784; his ship "Grand Turk" with the Isle of 

 France and China, clearing, Nov. 28, 1785 ; in 1787-8 his 

 ship "Atlantic" was the first American craft to display our 

 flag at Surat, Bombay, and Calcutta.^ By the census of 



3 One of his vessels is claimed to have been the first to show the stars and stripes 

 at Siam, and on April 26, 1798, his ship "Recovery," Capt. Joseph Ropes, master, 

 left Salem for Mocha, arriving there Sept. 9, in advance of all otlier American 

 vessels. Salem vessels were the first to display the American flag at the Island of 

 Java, in 1796; and Nov. 3, 1795, the scliooner "Rajah," of 130 tons burthen, carrying 

 four guns and ten men, built for Jonathan Peele and Gommanded by Capt. Jonathan 



