11 



ship with Endicott and company made its appearance, which 

 had been sent with tlie resohition to erect " a new colony on 

 the old foundation." The next year it was followed by others, 

 and in 1630 by the great emigration under Whithrop, whicb 

 firmly and permanently planted the colony of Massachusetts. 



"Marbleharbour," now Marblehead, became a fishing port, so 

 celebrated even then, that in 1629, in a letter written that 

 year, it was stated that " sixteen hundred bass were taken iii 

 one draught, while the schools of mackerel were so numerous 

 as to extort exclamations of astonishment from all beholders." 

 " In 1633, Matthew Craddock, the Governor of the Massachu- 

 setts company, and others had fishing stages at Marblehead, 

 and sent their vessels and men tliere to catch and cure the fish, 

 returning with their cargoes at the close of the season." 



Gloucester became an incorporated town in the 2d month of 

 1642, " and it is an interesting fact that within the first year 

 of her incorporation Gloucester built her first vessel." Glou- 

 cester also has the honor of building the first schooner. 



*" Capt. Andrew Robinson had built in 1713 a vessel which 

 he had masted and rigged in a peculiar manner, the same as 

 the schooners of the present day. When launched, the pecu- 

 liar skipping motion she made as she glided into the water 

 from the stocks caused one of the by-standers to exclaim, 

 ^ 0, how she scoonsF Robinson instantly replied, as dashing 

 a bottle of rum against her bows, ' a scooner let her be.' 

 Since that time tlie same class of vessels have been called 

 Schooners." And would it not be well for some antiquarian to 

 ascertain if the skipping motion she made when she entered 

 the water did not obtain for her master the name of skipper, a 

 title still continued in the fishing schooners. " About 70 of 



*Bab.sou's History of Gloucester. 



