OLD SALEM TOWN 159 



first American ship to seek this round-the-world 

 port. Seventeen months after she returned, the 

 result of her voyage, for one thing, being a cargo 

 that brought her owners twice more capital than 

 she had carried out. The Salem merchants often 

 sold not only the cargo but the ship itself in these 

 far distant ports, and later the Grand Turk was 

 thus disposed of in India, Derby building another 

 and a larger vessel of the same name. In 1794 

 Salem owned 160 vessels of a tonnage totaling 

 16,788 tons. In 1805 this number had increased 

 to 54 ships, 18 barques, 72 brigs and 86 schooners, 

 of which 48 were employed in trade around the 

 Cape of Good Hope. In 1806 there were 73 ships, 

 11 barques and 48 brigs, all engaged in this 

 foreign trade, which gave such splendid opportun- 

 ity for adventure and such princely returns. Car- 

 goes have been brought into Salem port that 

 realized 800 per cent on the capital invested, and 

 from 1800 to 1807 inclusive 1542 vessels in the 

 foreign trade arrived, paying an annual average 

 duty of $755,157.90, and this at the 10 or 12 per 

 cent ad valorem which was the reasonable rate 

 of those days. 



