60 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 



ton Bay — carrying with them Uttle beside such occasional surplus of corn 

 as might have been grown above the needs of the settlers, the skins and 

 furs of wild animals procured from the chase or by traffic with the Indians, 

 and the oil and bone of whales drifted on shore or captured by their own 

 strong arms, and bringing back modest stocks of goods from the mother 

 country adapted to their most urgent wants. Sometimes these voyages 

 were made wholly or mainly for pleasure, to visit relatives and friends from 

 whom they had long been parted. To us, who are brought by daily steam 

 communication so near to the places named, it may not be easy to esti- 

 mate the serious nature of such an undertaking as a trip at that time from 

 Eastern Long Island to the Dutch settlement of New Netherlands or to 

 the New England ports with which their commercial, like their political 

 and civil intercourse, was more intimate and frequent. Except for the 

 compass to guide their course, no aids to navigation then existed. No 

 buoys marked the channels and shoals of water ways; no beacons or light- 

 houses shed friendly instruction by day or night over the dangerous pas- 

 sages or the shores and rocks to be avoided. By the compass alone, when 

 not close in with the land, they steered through the day, and by the 

 light of moon or stars they sometimes sailed at night, but often when the 

 weather was not fair they sought the shelter of some bay or cove and cast 

 anchor or drew their boats to land till morning. It may not have been a 

 display of such subUme faith and such calm courage as were shown by the 

 heroes who a century before turned the prows of their frail barges from the 

 old world toward the unknown new and boldly pressed on into the welter- 

 ing waste of Atlantic waters; but it was a great enterprise and an actual 

 achievement, into which the same elements of faith and courage and skilled 

 seamanship according to the conditions under which' it was then exercised, 

 may be said with no less truth, though in less degree, to have entered. 



Coincident with the first settlement of Southold in 1640, Thomas 

 Weatherby (appropriately named) is mentioned as a mariner and as having 

 bought a house and lot at Town Harbor for ^15, on October 25, 1604- 

 In Book A of the Town Records is entered the sale of a ketch of 44 tons. 

 Though this word is usually given to vessels of 100 to 200 tons or over, 

 having main and mizzen masts and decked over, it is probable the vessel 

 referred to was a sloop whose tonnage rated by the measurement now in 

 vogue would perhaps not exceed 12 to 15 tons. Pinnaces were also men- 

 tioned in the old records, and were small open boats navigated with oars 

 or sails; if with the latter they generally had two masts but were sloop- 

 rigged. 



As the colonies slowly grew in numbers and increased the products of 

 their industries, this commerce, especially with New . England, to whom 

 the affections and the alliances of our ancestors went out with especial 

 force, kept equal or more than equal pace in the extent, variety and vol- 

 ume of its operations. The size of the vessels was enlarged and their 

 equipments improved. Sloops of 10 to 20 or 30 tons were built and used 

 in carrying produce, whale oil and bone, peltry, etc., and passengers, 

 across the Sound or to Massachusetts' ports, returning with such wares as 

 were fitted to the few and simple wants of a Puritan people. While there 

 were no Custom Houses and no records before the latter part of the last 

 century, we have reason to believe that the coasting trade along the shores 

 of New England and Long Island was already active and considerable, 

 though conducted in small craft. It is evidence of Long Island's having 



