fishermen's memorial and record book. 107 



J. G. Curtis, by Capt. Thomas E. Newcombe, and William S. Baker, 

 by Capt. Albion K. Pearce, manned by our hardy fishermen, were at 

 once fitted out and put into commission, to cruise in search of rebel 

 pirates on our coast ; but they had taken the alarm, and six vessels, 

 as recorded in the year's losses, was the extent of the depredations 

 upon the fishing fleet. 



A Valuable Branch of Industry. 



The fisheries have always been regarded as a valuable branch of 

 the industry of New England. From the early records of the Com- 

 pany of Massachusetts Bay, we learn that our fishermen were among 

 the few classes of persons who were exempted from the performance of 

 military duty. So important were the fisheries considered in old 

 colonial times, that, in negotiating for peace with the mother country, 

 Massachusetts desired no peace unless it secured to the United States 

 the freedom of the fishing grounds. 



As an evidence of this sentiment, the carved codfish was conspicu- 

 ously placed on the walls of the State House ; which remained there 

 until a very recent period, and may still, for aught we know, adorn 

 the Capitol at Boston ; not, perhaps, so much as a work of art, sim- 

 ply, but as a revolutionary memento, serving to remind the assembled 

 wisdom of the Commonwealth, annually, of the self-sacrificing and 

 determined spirit of their predecessors. 



