THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 



421 



built ; but from the time these larger craft began to be 

 reared in our shipyards there were very few of the small 

 ones undertaken. In fact, there were only a few more fish- 

 ing craft needed in our Cove after this time, because the 

 harbor and wharfage could not accommodate more than 

 sixty or seventy of them. Furthermore, several of our 

 vessel owners purchased their schooners from shipbuilders 

 of other towns, so that our own carpenters were not needed 



Mackerel Schooner of 1850. 



in many cases. And finally, the reason for the failure to 

 build more fishing vessels was that the fish industry of 

 our town soon began to wane. The climax was reached 

 at about 1850, as we shall see a few pages further on. 



When our ship carpenters found insufficient employ- 

 ment at building for the fish business, they began to 

 undertake, as we saw, the construction of merchantmen of 



