9 



the present century.* Boston lias now taken the foreign trade 

 from Salem and other ports in our county, and Gloucester has 

 absorbed the fisheries from Marblehead and other ports, Mar- 

 blehead having had 251 fishing vessels in 1775, against 75 at 

 Cape Ann; while in 1879, Marblehead (Customs District) had 

 only 123 of over 5 tons burthen, against 459 at Gloucester. 



The Plymouth Colony, which had given no particular atten- 

 tion to the fisheries, previously " sent a ship in 1624, called the 

 Charity," from that colony to erect salt works and a fishing, 

 stage at Gape Ann. Before the arrival of their ship the fol- 

 lowing year, another, sent by merchants and adventurers fromi 

 England, hostile to the pilgrims, had entered the harbor and! 

 seized the stage and other provision made by the Charity'* 

 colony the year previous, and the " Stage Head," (afterward» 

 fortified in the Revolutionary war and wars of 1812 and 1861>, 

 was barricaded with hogsheads, and the rightful owners, under 

 Capt. Miles Standish, were kept at bay. Then ensued a war 

 of words, bloodshed being only arrested by the prudence and 

 moderation of Roger Conant, the Governor of the Dorchester 

 colony, and Capt. Wm. Pierce, " a goodly man and most ex- 

 pert mariner of the pilgrims' ship," who induced the pilgrims 

 to retire and build a new stage elsewhere. With the close of 

 this year's fishing, the Plymouth people abandoned Cape Ann. 

 as a fishing station, although both their vessels, " well laden, 

 went joyfully home together, the master o-f the larger ship 

 towing ye lesser ship at his sterne, all ye way overbound." 



" Discouraged by their losses and the ill success of their 



*153,500 qtls. of fish, worth S537,250, were shipped to European- ports, and! 

 118,000 qtls. of fish, worth 8306,800, were shipped to W*"St Indies aniinally; just 

 before the Eevolutionary War, from Essex county, a total of 273,500 qtls., 

 $844,000 in value exported, Marblehead shipping 120,000 qtls. and GloucestCT 

 77,500 qt\s.— Pitkin's Commerce of the United States, 183it5. 



