02 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



New Harbor in the town of Bristol. The principal business connected with the fisheries was, up 

 to 1879, at the menhaden oil and guano factory known as the Loud's Island Oil Works, built on the 

 island in 1873. 



32. MONHEGAN ISLAND AND ITS FISHERIES. 



REVIEW OF MONHEGAN AND ITS FISHERIES FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT. The island of 



Mouhegan, lying 12 miles southeast of Pemaquid Point, is about 1 mile wide by 2 miles long. It 

 is historically one of the most interesting localities in the State, and the early voyagers in their 

 descriptions of the country refer to it as bearing an important relation to the early fisheries of 

 America. Being situated at so short a distance from the land, with excellent fishing grounds on 

 every side, it is natural that it should be a favorite resort for the Europeans who came both to 

 ca'ch fish and to exchange trinkets and merchandise with the natives for furs. 



Capt. John Smith, in his description of New England, gives the following account of an early 

 visit to this island : 



" In the month of April, 1014, with 2 ships from London, of a few merchants, I chanced to arrive 

 in New England, a part of America, at the Isle of Monahiggan, in forty-three and a half of northerly 

 latitude. Our plot was there to take whales and make trials of a mine of gold and copper. If this 

 failed, fish and furs was then our refuge, to make ourselves savers howsoever. We found this whale- 

 fishing a costly conclusion. We saw many, and spent much time in chasing them ; but could not kill 

 any, they being a kind of jubartes, and not the whale that yields fins and oil, as we expected. For 

 our gold, it was rather the master's device to get a voyage that projected it than any knowledge he 

 had at all of any such matter. Fish and furs was now our guard; and by our late arrival and long 

 lingering about the whale, the prime of both those seasons were past ere we perceived it; we 

 thinking that their seasons served at all times, but we found it otherwise; for, by the midst of June 

 the fishing failed. Yet in July and August some were taken, but not sufficient to defray so great 

 a charge as our stay required. Of dry fish we made about 40,000, of corfish about 7,000. Whilst 

 the sailors fished, myself, with eight or nine others of them might best be spared, ranging the coast 

 in a small boat, we got for trifles near 1,100 beaver skins, 100 martens, and near as many otters; 

 and the most of them within a distance of twenty leagues. We ranged the coast both east and west 

 much further; but eastwards our commodities were not esteemed, they were so near the French 

 who afford them better; and right against us in the main was a ship of Sir Francis Popham's, that 

 had there such acquaintance, having many years used only that port, that the most part there was 

 had by him. And forty leagues westward were two French ships, that had made there a great 

 voyage by trade, during the time we tried those conclusions, not knowing the coast nor salvages' 

 habitation. W T ith these furs, the train and corfish, I returned for England in the barque; where, 

 within six months after our departure from the Downs, we arrived safe back. The best of these 

 fish was sold for five pound the hundredth, the rest by ill-usage betwixt three pound and fifty 

 shillings. The other ship stayed here to fit herself for Spain with the dry fish, which was sold, by 

 the sailor's report that returned, at forty rials the quintal, each hundred weighing two quintals 

 and a half."* 



Mr. Lorenzo Sabine, in his Report on the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas, says: "At 

 the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the island of Mouhegan, in Maine, had become a noted 

 fishing station. In 1G22 no less than thirty-five ships from London and the west counties of England 

 made profitable voyages to our shores. 'Where, in Newfoundland,' says Smith, 'a common fish- 

 erman shared six or seven pounds,' in New England he 'shared fourteen pounds.'" 



Col. Mass. Hist. Sue., vol. VI, 3d series, pp. 103, 104. 



