INDUSTRIES 



■crimes committed on the soil of Newfoundland, 

 the vice-admiral in Dorset being similarly em- 

 powered to proceed against offenders by sea.'' 

 In 1649 Poole had eight ships engaged in the 

 trade with Newfoundland.'* No small profit 

 was reaped by those who took part in these 

 expeditions in the reign of James I, the mer- 

 chants of Lyme Regis, ' being engaged in trade 

 to Newfoundland, acquired large fortunes and 

 raised the town considerably.' This town, in 

 common with Poole and Weymouth, suffered 

 by the loss of this trade, temporarily caused by 

 the war of the Spanish Succession. Weymouth 

 seems to have recovered more quickly than the 

 other two towns, for even before the Peace of 

 Utrecht ' its trade began again to flourish, and 

 the merchants fitted out 20 ships for Newfound- 

 land in 1711.''^ 



At Poole, in 1724, Defoe found that 'a good 

 number of ships were fitted out every year to the 

 Newfoundland fishing in which the Poole men 

 were said to have been particularly successful for 

 many years past.'^" In 1732 Weymouth and tons 



Melcombe Regis had as many as ' 80 sail of 

 ships and barks engaged in the Newfoundland 

 industry.' ^^ This number was probably excep- 

 tional, and refers to a record year rather than to 

 the average number of vessels sent out. 



The editors of the sixth edition of Defoe's 

 Tour through Great Britain rival Defoe himself 

 in the clearness with which they describe this 

 industry, and their account is corroborated by 

 every writer in the eighteenth century. 



The principal branch of the foreign commerce of 

 Poole's inhabitants is the Newfoundland fishery, to 

 which they send every spring in time of peace 

 upwards of seventy sail of vessels from the burden of 

 100 to 150 tons, laden with provisions, nets, cordage, 

 sailcloth, and all sorts of wearing apparel, with variety 

 of other commodities for the consumption of the 

 inhabitants and their servants. The smaller vessels 

 fish on the banks, and make two or three trips every 

 season. Their returns are in cod, oil, skins, and furs, 

 and in autumn they export their fish to Spain, Italy, 

 and Portugal. This is a trade not more profitable to 

 those concerned than beneficial in general to the 

 kingdom, as it subsists a prodigious number of hands, 

 occasions a great export of our commodities and 

 manufactures, and breeds excellent seamen ... In 

 time of war they have hitherto suffered extremely, 

 and as this is so exceedingly detrimental to a trade 

 which is so apparently serviceable to the Royal Navy 

 it deserves notice." 



This description is as true of Dorset as a 

 whole as it is of Poole in particular, though 

 the industry seems to have had an especial attrac- 



'' Reeves, Hist. 'Newfoundland, 9. 



'' Hutchins, Hist. Poole, 39. 



'' Cox, Magna Brit. 549. 



*° Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1724), 319. 



*' Coker, Sarc. of Dors. (1732), 35. 



*' Defoe, Tour through Great Brit. (1761), 319. 



tion for the adventurous and reckless sailors of 

 that town. Throughout the eighteenth century 

 the trade with Newfoundland was the most 

 important commercial venture in the county, and 

 Dorset seems to have been the largest adventurer 

 in this trade. 



In the ' Report of the Committee appointed 

 to enquire into the state of Trade in Newfound- 

 land in 1793' an analysis is given of the 

 number of ships sent to Newfoundland between 

 1769 and 1792 by the various towns engaged 

 in the industry. In this analysis Poole and 

 Dartmouth are shown to have sent more ships 

 than any of the other towns. In the years 

 1774, 1787, and 1788 Poole sent fewer ships 

 than Dartmouth, though the total tonnage sent 

 by each town was almost the same. In the 

 remaining years Poole sent more ships or ships 

 of greater tonnage than Dartmouth, e.g. in 1 791 

 Dartmouth sent eighty-three ships whose total 

 tonnage was 7,254 tons, while Poole sent 

 seventy-eight ships whose total tonnage was 9,528 



These ships were usually built in the towns 

 in which their owners lived, and shipbuilding 

 was a considerable business in Poole " and Lyme 

 Regis,^' Poole being famed for ' Leith smacks ' 

 and revenue cutters, while Bridport received 

 most of the orders for cordage, sails, and nets 

 for Newfoundland-bound ships at the end of the 

 eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth 

 centuries.^' 



The history of the industry is bound up with 

 the history of Newfoundland, and this consists, 

 as Chief Justice Reeves pointed out,^' in the 

 history of the quarrel between the adventurers 

 and planters. There are numerous descriptions 

 of the origin and growth of these two classes, 

 and one of the best seems to be that given 

 by Mr. George Garland to the Select Com- 

 mittee on Newfoundland Trade on 19 June, 

 1817 :— 



When the trade was first established the merchants 

 and their immediate servants were the only classes of 

 persons engaged in it. The merchant residing in 

 England made his outfit in the spring of the year, 

 both as it represented the number of servants he 

 engaged and the quantity of provisions and tackle he 

 provided on a scale proportioned to the extent to 

 which he intended to carry on the fishery. The fish 

 was wholly caught, cured, and exported by his own 

 servants, and a very small establishment (if any) was 

 left in the island through the winter. In process of 

 time, however, a third class of persons sprang up con- 

 sisting of servants and sailors who had chosen to 



" Rep. Select Com. Newfoundland Trade (1793), 4. 

 *' Pococke, Travels, i, 87. See Introduction. 

 " Handbook of Travel round the Southern Coast of Engl. 

 (1849), 301. 



" Harvey, Hist, of N ewfoundland, 37. 

 " Reeves, Hist, of the Govt, of the Island of New- 

 foundland (1793), 21. 



357 



