THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC. 325 



larger ones struck out boldly for foreign shores, doing a 

 commerce between the West Indies and New England, 

 a few of them venturing across the Atlantic into the 

 ports of the Old World.* 



The seamen, moreover, who took their first lessons upon 

 our fishing craft often developed into mariners able to 

 navigate in any waters of the globe. These became in- 

 trusted with foreign-going vessels that sailed from Boston, 

 and it would be difficult to mention any port of importance 

 in the commerce of the ocean that has not been entered 

 by some of the sons of Cohasset. 



There are no available documents to furnish a list of 

 Cohasset shipmasters who sailed the vessels of other 

 owners during the years following the Revolution and 

 preceding the War of 181 2; but such vessels as were 

 built in Cohasset and registered in Boston for foreign 

 voyages can be known. 



The following list begins with the year 1789, the regis- 

 ters of preceding years having been destroyed, as we 

 already have noted. These have been culled from the 

 books in the United States Custom House at Boston 

 under the care of George Osgood of Weymouth : — 



LIST OF VESSELS CLEARLNG FROM CUSTOM HOUSE AT BOSTON 

 FOR THE FOLLOWING YP^ARS, BEFORE THE WAR OF 1812. 



Date. Vessel. Owner. Master. 



1789. 



1790. 



* Captain Philip Fox, an English boy who became a Cohasseter, was one of the 

 ablest of our foreign-going masters. He commanded the packet ship Herald 

 sailing between Boston and Liverpool, and he beat the best record of his time 

 seventeen days for a trip in the year 1819. (See Joel Willcutt's diary.) He was 

 drowned in the Mediterranean. 



