FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 37 



it when a boy, a small low island, partly washed away by the tide, with 

 a few stunted trees growing upon it. As the captured pirates were tried and 

 executed elsewhere, it is probable that the island took its name from the 

 suspension of the dead bodies of Burroughs and Phillips, who were killed 

 in the recapture of the sloop, upon a mock gallows thereon. 



Why the early fishermen should have sought such out-of-the-way places — 

 always far up some river or creek — in preference to Gloucester harbor, 

 whose convenience of access and adaptability to the business has given 

 birth to a thriving and growing city, is left to conjecture. It may be that 

 in those troublous times they selected them as being more remote from the 

 sea, and affording greater safety from the depredations of piratical craft, 

 which were then quite numerous, and also from the cruisers of the govern- 

 ments with which the mother country was then at war. The location of 

 their dwelling houses — of which forty desolate cellars remain, whose story 

 none can tell — far removed from the shore, and always in some secluded 

 spot, corroborates this view, as does also the tradition that they hauled their 

 fish up on Dogtown Common to cure. 



About 1630 a party of men, led by a son of Rev. John Robinson of Puri- 

 tan fame, seeking a place suitable for a fishing station, landed at Annisquam, 

 and were so well pleased with its harbor and other conveniences that they 

 concluded to set up a fishing stage there, and send for their families. This 

 was the first permanent settlement of Cape Ann. The abandoned cellars 

 were theirs, and the ruined wharves which tradition asserts were once the 

 sites of important fishing establishments, doubtless belonged to and were 

 used by them and their immediate descendants. 



What sort of crafts they used, what voyages they made, what success they 

 met with, cannot now be learned. It is probable that the "ketch," a small 

 open boat with two masts and sails, answered every requirement for a long 

 period, since doubtless fish were plentiful and near at hand. Probably no 

 craft of considerable size fitted from these establishments until a much 

 later period. In 1724, nearly a hundred years after the settlement, we find 

 mention of a vessel of larger proportions, the Squirrel, before alluded to. 

 She must have been a good-sized craft, carrying quite a crew, and bound on 

 a distant voyage, as it is said that the men took their tools along with them 

 to complete her on the outward passage, she being a new vessel. At a later 

 date the old Bankers and Pinkeys were undoubtedly fitted from these estab- 

 lishments. 



Wishing to obtain some information in regard to the ancient fishing 

 site at Mill Creek, concerning which there has been so much curiosity 

 and conjecture, and of which a ruined wharf is all that now remains, we 

 sought out " Uncle Ben," who lives near the place, as the one most likely to 

 be able to impart the information we desired "Uncle Ben" is a hale old 



