COD-FISHERIES OF CAPE ANN. 687 



ica, reached the coast of Maine, and sailing southward passed " the 

 mighty headland, which, on account of the great numbers of cod-fish with 

 which the voyagers 'pestered their ships there', then received the name 

 of Cape Cod." From this date foreign merchants, principally those of 

 England, fitted out fishing- vessels for America, these visiting points on 

 the coast of Maine, and meeting with varying success. In 1022 these 

 parties, having found the expenses of the enterprise greater than the 

 catch of fish would warrant, began to devise methods of lessening them. 

 They soon decided upon a plan whereby the vessels should take out a 

 number of men in addition to their regular crews, these to assist in 

 taking the fish, and to be landed on the shore after the trips were secured, 

 where they were to remain during the rest of the year to clear the soil 

 and engage in agricultural j)ursuits, living chiefly on the natural products 

 of the land ; and to devote their time during the fishing season to load- 

 ing the vessels that were to be sent yearly to the little colony. Accord- 

 ingly, in 1023, a ship left Dorchester, England, and proceeded to the 

 usual fishing-grounds, coming later into Massachusetts Bay, where she 

 secured the balance of her trip, and, after leaving fourteen men at Cape 

 Ann with suitable provisions, sailed for Europe. The same year a i)at- 

 ent of the land was granted to the New Plymouth colony, who in 1024 

 built a fishing-stage at Cape Ann, the Dorchester fishermen arranging 

 to share the patent with them. The following year a man was sent 

 from Plymouth to build salt-pans at this place, but, the fisheries proving 

 uuremunerative, were abandoned by both parties, and the colony was 

 broken up, a x>art of the Dorchester men returning to England while 

 the remainder removed to Salem. 



The next fishing interests at Cape Ann were in 1039, when the gen- 

 eral court passed an act for the encouragement of Mr. Maurice Thomson 

 and others, i^roviding for the establishment of a fishery plantation, and 

 granting certain exemptions to fishery establishments, in order to en- 

 courage the colonists to engage more extensively in the cai)ture of the 

 different species. This seemed to have a beneficial influence on the 

 fishing interests of the section, and they gradually grew into a more 

 flourishing condition. But it was not until the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury that these fisheries assumed important proportions, and then, for the 

 first time, ship-building was extensively carried on, and Cape Ann sent 

 a large fleet to Cape Sable and Sable Island forcod-fisb. In 1741 

 Gloucester owned about 70 sail, and at the beginning of the Eevolu- 

 tionary War she had 80 sail engaged largely in the bank-fisheries, 

 with nearly twice as many chebacco boats fishing along the shore. The 

 effect of the war, together with the small catch of the vessels, resulted 

 disastrously to the fishing interests, and at the beginning of the present 

 century the fleet had dwindled down to 8 sail of more than 30 tons. But 

 while the bank or offshore fleet had been so reduced the smaller crafts 

 had continued to increase, and there were at this time fully 200 chebacco 

 boats, aggregating about 3,000 tons, fishing on the inshore grounds. 



