680 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



vessels manned by fishermen. Until 1806, Fcrnald's Island, containing sixty acres, and lying immediately opposite 

 the city, was extensively used for the curing of fish. In that year it was purchased by the Government for $5,500 and 

 the Portsmouth Navy-yard established there. 



THE PORTSMOUTH WINTER FISHERIES IN 1S70. The Gloucester Telegraph of March 23, 1870, says: "The Ports- 

 month fisheries employ ten vessels with forty small boats and one hundred men in the winter fisheries otf th.it harbor. 

 It is estimated that over a million pounds of codfish have been landed at one wharf in Portsmouth during the past 

 winter. Nearly $30,000 worth of fish have been sold this season, mostly to dealers in Boston and New York. In and 

 about the harbor there is now sunk over 63 miles of trawls, on which are hung over 96,000 hooks. These hooks are 

 baited mostly with herring and sometimes with clams. The cost of one baiting for this 63 miles of trawl is about 

 $180. Next winter will probably see 200,000 temptations set for the codfish who lie in the deep water off Portsmouth 

 Harbor." 



The Gloucester Telegraph of December 7, 1870, says: "The fishermen of Portsmouth, N. H., are having a great 

 catch now. Four schooners arrived from a two days' cruise on Monday, bringing in 75,000 pounds of fish." 'The same 

 paper for December 14th says: "The large amount of fish reported caught in Portsmouth Harbor of late were taken 

 on trawls. One vessel, carrying fourteen men, received $1,350 for their harvest of one week, but this was very 

 unusual." 



HISTORY OF THE ISLES OF SHOALS AS A FISHING STATION. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAME. "Sailing out from Portsmouth Harbor with a fair wind from the northwest," writes Celia 

 Thaxter, "the Isles of Shoals lie straight before you, nine miles away, ill-defined and cloudy shapes, faintly discernible 

 in the distance. A word abont the origin of this name, Isles of Shoals. They are supposed to have been so called, 

 uot because the ragged reefs run out beneath the water in all directions ready to wreck and destroy, but because of 

 the shoaling or schooling of fish about them, which, in the mackerel and herring seasons, is remarkable. As you 

 approach they separate and show each its own characteristics, and yon perceive that there are six islands if the tide 

 is low, but if it is high there are eight, and would be nine but that a breakwater connects two of them." 1 



FACILITIES FOR FISHING. These islands would probably never have been settled but for the excellent advan- 

 tages they afforded for the prosecution of the fisheries. The early colonists of New England were constantly on the 

 lookout for good fishing stations. Levott, who visited the locality in 1623 or 1624, wrote : " The first place I set my 

 foot upon in New England was the Isles of Shoals, being islands in the sea, about two leagues from the main. Upon 

 these islands I neither could see one good timber tree nor so much good ground as to make a garden. The place is 

 found to be a good fishing place for six ships, but more cannot well be there for want of convenient stage room, as 

 1his year's experience hath proved. The harbor is but indifferent good. Upon these islands are no savages at all.'' 

 Levett's Voyage: London, 1028.' 



In Lechford's Plaine Dealing, published in London in 1642, it is remarked: " The Isle of Shoals and Richmond's 

 Isle, which lie neere Pasquattaqua, are good fishing places." 3 



DISASTER. " In 1632 a fishing shallop at the Isle of Shoals was overset." 4 



THE ISLANDS IN 1661 AND 1682. "The Isle of Shoals were occupied at a very early date, and soon became places 

 of note and of great resort. In 1661, they were inhabited by upwards of forty families. The fisheries were prose- 

 cuted with vigor and success at that period, and subsequently, for quite a century." 6 



In 1C82, according to the records of New Hampshire, the fisheries of these islands were regarded as much more 

 important than those of the settlements at the mouth of the Piscataqua. 



TROUBLE WITH INDIANS. In 1688 the inhabitants of Hog Island were forced to remove to Star Island on account 

 of the depredations of the Indians, who made plundering incursions, carrying away the women into captivity while 

 the men were fishing. 



" Star Island seemed a place of greater safety ; and probably the greater advantages of landing and the conveni- 

 ence of a wide cove at the entrance of the village, with a little harbor wherein the fishing craft might anchor with 

 some security, were also inducements." 6 



THE F'ISHEKIF.S PROM 1760 to 1800." Before the war of the Revolution, when the islands were in a flourishing 

 state, there were annually caught here, and cured for the market, from three to four thousand quintals of fish. At 

 that time seven or eight schooners, besides boats, were employed in this business; and some used to extend their 

 fishing voyages to the Banks of Newfoundland. About the year 1730, and afterwards, the fisheries on these islands 

 increased to that degree that three or four ships used to load here, annually, with winter and spring merchantable 

 fish for Bilboa, in Spain, and smaller vessels for other places. Besides, a large quantity of cod and scale fish were 

 carried to Portsmouth, for the West India market. 



"The usual drink of the fishermen, at that period, was a liquor which they called bounce, composed of two-thirds 

 spruce beer and one-third wine. But, in a course of years, they gradually left off the use of this -wholesome drink, 

 and substituted in its place ardent spirits, which has been a principal means of the lamentable degeneracy of these 

 people." 7 



GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION. " The old town records are quaint and interesting, and the spelling and modes of 

 expression so peculiar that I have copied a few. Mr. John Muchamore was the moderator of a meeting called 



1 Isles of Shoals, 1873, pp. 9, 10. 6 Sabine, op. at., p. 114. 



* Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. viii, 3d series, p. 164. e Thaxter's Isles of Shoals, 1873, p. 47. 



*lbi<1., vol. iii, 3d series, p. 100. 'Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. vii, 1802, pp. 247-252. 



1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 37. 



