40 FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



order to badger him he sent some one down while he was getting underway 

 for a fishing voyage, to ask him if he had got his quadrant on board. 'Tell 

 Cap'n Babs'n,' was the reply, 'that I kin find ye way to ye Banks widout a 

 quadrant as weel as he kin wid one.' 



" I wish I could tell you something more definite about the old-time fish- 

 eries, but even were I able to do so it might be questioned, since I could 

 only speak from hearsay. 



"The pinkey fleet, however, were quite numerous in my day. At one 

 time there were more than one hundred on this side of the Cape, including 

 Rockport, then Sandy Bay ; Lanesville, then Lane's Cove ; Bay View, then 

 Hodgkins' Cove ; and 'Squam, where about twenty-five were owned and 

 fitted. Those belonging to the first-named places would come around to 

 'Squam when the weather was bad or threatening, those from Rockport 

 going into Goose Cove as affording a near route to their homes, and those 

 from Lanesville and Bay View into Lobster Cove for the same reason. 

 There were no breakwaters at those places then, and in good weather the 

 pinkeys were moored to a mooring-stump* — a spar with one end driven into 

 a hole made for the purpose in a large flat rock of several tons weight, 

 sunken at a sufficient distance from the shore to allow the pinkeys to swing 

 clear of the rocks. Some of them still remain, and are objects of curiosity. 



"They were the old style pinkey, without bowsprit or shrouds, with two 

 masts and hempen sails, and were from twelve to twenty-five tons burthen, 

 and carried a crew of three men. They were built at Chebacco, now Essex, 

 at first, but were afterwards also built at 'Squam. Capt. Epes Davis built 

 the first one there, about the year 1800, on the Chebacco model. He hired 

 a man from Essex to help him, but for some reason he went away when the 

 pinkey was half completed, and Capt. Davis finished her himself, with the 

 aid of his wife, who held the plank and timbers while he fastened them on. 

 This pinkey was twenty tons burthen, and named the Dromo. Capt. Davis 

 went to Brown's Bank in her and brought in sixty quintals of split fish. 

 She had the usual features of the pinkey, two open standing rooms, one 

 forward and one aft, to fish in, with hatches to cover them over, and was 

 without shrouds or bowsprit. Capt. Davis continued the building of vessels, 

 and in all built more than one hundred. In 1823 he built the first square 

 stern vessel ever built at 'Squam. Her name was the Chrysanthemum^ of 

 sixty-three tons, and she was first sent on a southern mackereling voyage. 

 Others engaged in the business, and it flourished for many years. At one 

 time I have seen ten vessels on the stocks, and sixty sail were owned and 

 fitted here. 



"They are all gone, skippers, boats and crews. I can remember the 



*A full description of these mooring stumps is given in tbe "Fishermen's Memorial and 

 Record Book." 



