EARLY QUARANTINE ARRANGEMENTS OF SALEM. 5 



boards whereof they stand in need ;" two spots " by y e 

 waters side" are assigned to master-builders for ship build- 

 ing ; the Ship "Desire" 1 of 120 tons, built here in 1636, 

 had made a voyage to New Providence & Tortuga ; be- 

 fore a twelvemonth ended a Fast was observed "on account 

 of prevailing fevers, small-pox & low state of religion ;" 

 the first importation of indigo and sugar seems to have 

 been made in 1639, though cotton had arrived earlier ; on 

 " the 22 th of the 3 th m called May" of that year the Gen- 

 eral Court voted " for further incuragement of men to set 

 vpon fishinge, * * that such ships & vessels & other 

 stock, as shall bee properly imployed & adventured in 

 takeing, makeing & transporting of fish, according to the 

 course of fishing voyages & the fish itselfe, shall bee ex- 

 empt for 7 years from heneefourth from all countrey 

 charges," * * Fishermen & Ship-carpenters were ex* 

 empt from " training" and so important to the colony had 

 the export of dried fish become that " it is forbidden to 

 all men, after the 20 th of the next month, to imploy any 

 codd or basse fish for manuring of ground," upon pain of 

 losing " the privledg of exemption from publike charges ;" 

 "timber trees fitt for shippinge" are protected by vote of a 

 general town meeting in 1640, and "none shall cleave 

 such trees upp to clapbo[ards] or pipestaves ;" in 1641, 

 ship-building is to proceed under the eye of a sworn 

 surveyor because " the countrey is no we in hand w th the 

 building of Ships, w ch is a business of great importance 

 for the comon good " and at the urgency of Rev. Hugh 

 Peters of the First Church, a 300 ton ship is built here ; 

 the next year, 1642, "tymber within the towne lymitts" 

 is still further protected, by vote of town meeting, and, in 



years later, she made the passage from Salem to Gravesend in twenty- 

 three days, famous sailing for those times. 



