IN OLD NEWBURYPORT 119 



loupe and Surinam, Port au Prince and St. Mar- 

 tins as well as they knew the streets of their own 

 towns, for the trade with the West Indies was 

 very large. Ships launched at Newburyport and 

 manned by her men brought back wine from Ma- 

 deira, carpeting, silks and glassware from Bilbao, 

 salt from Cadiz and from Turk's Island, linen 

 from Ireland, earthenware from Dunkirk. They 

 brought back, too, knowledge of the wide spaces 

 of the earth and distant cities, and it is no wonder 

 the town grew in dignity as well as wealth, for it 

 had a broad outlook upon the world. In the year 

 1810, more than a century ago, twenty-one full- 

 rigged ships, thirteen brigs and a schooner were 

 built and set sail on maiden voyages f rom New- 

 buryport. On the first day of May, ten years 

 later, forty vessels that had been held in port by 

 contrary winds put to sea. The thought of such 

 fleets makes the harbor lonely to-day when the only 

 masts in sight are those of a coal barge or two, 

 waiting for the surf on the bar to go down and let 

 them out. 



It is only a little over half a century since New- 

 buryport saw the launching of a ship that was 



