THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 431 



and the captain turned her bow towards Halifax, Nova 

 Scotia. There the recovered fishermen were given to the 

 care of our American consul, who' secured them passage 

 to Boston after some days' delay. 



Before they reached home their people had been con- 

 vinced that all were lost. A Provincetown fishing boat 

 had picked up the body of a man near the Cape, and 

 bringing it home with them placed it upon the wharf for 

 some one to identify. It happened that a young man from 

 Beechwood was there in Provincetown, and he recognized 

 his familiar townsman Joshua Litchfield, the skipper of 

 the ill-fated Maine. The body was sent to Cohasset and 

 the funeral was held. Many sad hearts were gathered at 

 that funeral who feared that the rest of the crew had like- 

 wise perished, and that not even the dead bodies might 

 ever return to their native town. 



But that very day the rescued five * returned. The 

 dead skipper had reached home first, and the living came 

 to tell the sad story of the sea.f 



There are many other tragedies of which this is a 

 sample that befell the men engaged in business upon the 

 sea. In one storm the following three losses of Cohasset 

 vessels were reported in the Advertiser of Charlottetown, 

 Prince Edward Island, October 8, 1851 : — 



Schooner Henry Knox, of Cohasset ; Peris Turner, master. 

 Ashore about four miles to the east of Tracadie Harbor. 



Schooner Charles Augusta, of Cohasset ; Joseph Edwards, 

 master. Went on shore at St. Peter's Harbor. 



Schooner Naiad Queen ; S. Hunt, master. Drove on shore at 

 Tracadie Harbor. 



The crews were saved in these cases, but not every 

 storm was so considerate. In the annals of marine dis- 



* Isaiah Lincoln, Francis M. Lincoln, Alfred F. Wood, Joseph Bowker, Luther 

 Litchfield. 



t Through the efforts of Rev. Joseph Osgood and others, the widow of the skip- 

 per was given $600 by the Cunard Company; ^100 more were secured for Mrs. 

 Richardson. 



