THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC. 



'9 



that he was warranted in his conduct, by the humanity and great 

 kindness Captain Chen and his crevV had experienced, when ship- 

 wrecked at Cohasset, near Boston. 



This was only one of countless wrecks that have 

 strewn otir shore, for not until more than two hundred 

 years had passed was a lighthouse built on Minot's Ledge 

 in 1847. During those years of wreckage there were 

 many deeds of noble daring, and also many cases of cruel 

 pillaging. Besides the good men who aided the unfortu- 

 nates, there were always evil ones here who delighted to 

 know of a shipwreck on our shore, because the broken 

 cargoes of sugar or clothing or lumber or whatever else 

 might drift ashore could be hauled to their homes from the 

 beach as prizes of salvage. 



It is said that decoy lights were even put up at Green 

 Hill north of Straits Pond, for the villainous purpose of 

 imitating Boston Light in order to bring vessels upon the 

 Cohasset rocks. 



Mariners have looked upon Cohasseters more than once 

 as a set of pirates "as bad as those of Barnegat." 



But to return to our shipbuilding at the Cove. 



\vl 1787 Levi Tower had the Betsey built for himself, 

 a schooner square sterned and single decked as they all 

 were, measuring fifty-one tons. In the same year Samuel 

 Bates had the Polly built, nearly seventy tons burden, the 

 largest up to that date. The next year two more were 

 launched for a career of fishing, the Gannett of thirty-five 

 tons, for Samuel Bates and others, and the Betsey of fifty- 

 four tons, for Captain John Lewis. 



And thus each year, with few exceptions, from one to 

 five vessels were built by our Cohasset carpenters. In the 

 twenty years following 1789 there were launched forty-six 

 vessels, averaging more than two for every year. 



One who strolls about our quiet Cove nowadays can 

 scarcely imagine the busy gangs of carpenters who for- 

 merly made the air ring with their mallets and saws and 



