140 



GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHEEIES. 



Statement showing tlie number of mm employed and the number and tonnage of vessels engaged in the fisheries of the district 



of Gloucester for the years 1869 to 1876. 



59. THE FISHEEIES OF ESSEX AND EOCKPORT. 



ESSEX. Essex is situated 25 miles north-northeast of Boston, on the Essex Branch of the 

 Eastern Railroad. It joins Gloucester on the east and Manchester on the south. The town was 

 organized in 1819, when it became separate from Ipswich, which now bounds it on the north. The. 

 population of Essex in 1840 was 1,450; in 1880 about 1,800. 



The place is not favorably located for fishing either from vessels or boats, as it possesses no 

 harbor. The Essex River is a narrow stream that runs from the village to Ipswich Bay, a distance 

 of 2 or 3 miles, and has sufficient depth of water at high tide to float the largest fishing schooners 

 from the ship-yards to the sea. 



The principal industry of the people is ship-building, upwards of 1,200 of the best fishiug 

 vessels in the New England fleet having been built here during the past fifty years. In the early 

 history of vessel building the woodlands in the vicinity afforded most of the material needed, but 

 at present the lumber is brought from all parts of the country. There are several saw-mills, black- 

 smith shops, and a spar-yard connected with the ship-yards, and a considerable number of anchor 

 stocks and fish boxes are annually made in the town. 



The only factory in the district of Gloucester for the manufacture of fishing-lines is located at 

 Essex. The business was established in 1830, when hemp lines were used in the fisheries, but 

 since 1845 cotton lines have taken the place of those made from hemp. The lines are tarred by 

 steam, a process begun at Newburyport in 1875, prior to which time they were prepared in tar 

 heated by fire. The production of the factory amounts to about $30,000 annually, all of which is 

 sold at Gloucester for use principally in the deep-sea fisheries. The value of the buildings and 

 machinery is about $4,000, and the number of men employed is six. 



Clam-digging was formerly a profitable industry in this town, the extensive flats bordering 

 the river affording an abundance of these bivalves. Mr. Moses Knowlton states that about 1830 

 upwards of two hundred men and boys were employed in digging clams, and that from 1860 to 

 18G4 there were annually shipped from this place 3,000 barrels of shelled clams, most of which 

 were used for bait in the cod fisheries, and sold at $13 per barrel. Since 18G5 they have been used 

 more largely for food. During the year 1879 only ten men were constantly employed in clam- 

 digging, though at the height of the season, which lasted from October to May, there were some- 

 times seventy-five men and boys engaged in digging and shucking the clams. The production for 

 the year was 11,500 bushels of clams in the shell, valued at $4,500 to the diggers. Of this quan- 

 tity 9,000 bushels were shipped in the shell to Boston, Salem, and Marblehead; the remainder 

 wero shelled and sold in Gloucester, Rockport, and other places. Clams in the shell are worth 



