A HISTORY OF DORSET 



English hemp was probably always somewhat 

 inferior to that grown in Holland and Russia. 



However, despite the growing import of 

 foreign hemp, and the fact that government 

 orders became less and less frequent, the industry 

 at Bridport continued to flourish, and in the 

 latter years of the sixteenth century a new source 

 of trade was opened up, and another and local 

 monopoly was established which lasted for about 

 two hundred and fifty years. The Newfound- 

 land fishing industry was founded by West- 

 countrymen in Elizabeth's reign and grew 

 steadily in importance. Ships were sent from 

 all along the Dorset coast ; but Bridport itself 

 was more interested in the new market for its 

 goods than in the fishing profits, though it took 

 its share in them when occasion arose. It sup- 

 plied most of tlie heavy cordage, nets, and tackle 

 to the fishing fleet. As time went on the town 

 seems to have specialized in nets and fishing 

 tackle and to have gradually left off supplying 

 heavy ropes except to Bridport-built ships. This 

 change seems to have taken place before 1770, 

 as from that time twine, nets, and seines are 

 always mentioned first in the lists given of the 

 hempen products of Bridport. Rope-walks fell 

 more and more into disuse, though ropes were 

 made at Bridport Harbour until the shipyards 

 were closed late in the nineteenth century. 

 There are still some rope-walks in Bridport 

 itself, but they no longer make the enormous 

 hawsers, about 25 in. in circumference, which 

 were once used for mooring vessels. This 

 branch of the trade was killed by the intro- 

 duction of chain cables, which after various 

 experiments were served out to the navy in 

 1810— II, and were universally adopted after 

 the disasters which befell the merchantmen 

 bringing supplies to the English soldiers in the 

 Crimean War. The men-of-war rode at safety 

 in the roughest weather, relying on their chain 

 cables ; but the merchantmen, with hempen 

 hawsers, continually broke away from their 

 anchors. 



There are various references to the hempen 

 industry by writers in the first half of the eigh- 

 teenth century. Though the monopoly described 

 by Camden has come to an end, yet the ' town 

 is still in vogue for that sort of manufacture in 

 I720.'^- Twelve years later Coker found that 

 the people of Bridport ' reap their best commodity 

 from their skill in making up hemp, and their 

 trade in linen thread, which is sold weekly in 

 great abundance.'"' 



But it is from descriptions of the Newfound- 

 land fishery that the clearest idea of the extent 

 and importance of the industry can be gathered. 

 The connexion between Bridport and New- 

 foundland, though it has passed through various 



phases, has never been entirely broken, and cot- 

 tagers in Dorset still rejoice in the extra orders 

 for fishing tackle which follow a good season, 

 while ' hands ' are still thrown out of work by 

 the shortage in orders which inevitably accom- 

 panies a bad season in Newfoundland. 



When their harbour was in good repair the 

 merchants of Bridport sent out cargoes of nets 

 in their own ships, until sailing vessels were 

 superseded by steamers ; but until 1741 there 

 are continual notices that the harbour was ruined 

 and choked up with sand. This harbour is 

 formed by the little River Brit, which is not 

 strong enough to make a safe channel through 

 the sand-bars which occur at its mouth. 



There are constant references to building or 

 repairing Bridport Harbour, the piers which 

 were rebuilt in 1741-2 seem to have been fairly 

 effective, and by the end of the century a con- 

 siderable amount of trade was carried on. The 

 harbour accommodated vessels of 150 tons. The 

 ships which were sent to Newfoundland often 

 took out apprentices, to be bound to masters at 

 their journey's end, and after the fishing season 

 was over some of the ships themselves were sold 

 to inhabitants of Newfoundland, who employed 

 them for fishing, or for trading with America 

 and among the West Indies. Probably some 

 were used for smuggling rum, which was a 

 profitable source of income in the eighteenth 

 century. 



The merchants at home arranged what ships 

 and what cargoes they would send out, and the 

 town was filled with the busy hum of work. 

 Besides their own ventures the merchants fitted 

 out most of the other boats that sailed to New- 

 foundland at the end of the eighteenth and be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century .^^ And even 

 after the English fishing fleet was ruined, Brid- 

 port still supplied all the nets and fishing tackle 

 required in Newfoundland. But a factory was 

 set up on the island and protected by boun- 

 ties and import duties ; this gave the home- 

 made a distinct advantage over the English 

 goods. The factory in Newfoundland was 

 further benefited by the introduction of the use 

 of cotton for fishing purposes, as its nearness to 

 the United States lessened the cost of the cotton 

 which was used. Bridport still supplies a great 

 deal of fishing gear to Newfoundland, and the 

 bulk of goods exported is still very consider- 

 able, though the connexion is no longer so 

 important as it once was. Bridport has ceased 

 to put so many of its eggs in one basket, and 

 Newfoundland trusts to some extent to its own 

 skill. 



About the middle of the eighteenth century 

 a branch industry was developed, and Bridport 

 began to emulate its Somerset rival, West Coker, 

 in making sail-cloth. Pococke is the first to 



" Cox, Magna Brit. (1720), 313. 

 " Coker, Surv. of Dors. 23. 



348 



Harvey, Hist. ofNevifoundlond, 37. 



