G96 GEOGEAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



iu England : ' We arc here in a paradise. Though we have not beef and mutton, &e., yet (God be praised) we need 

 them not ; our Indian corn answers for all. Yet here is fowl and fish in abundance.' They had had early proof of the 

 abundance of fish, for Governor Wiuthrop's journal informs us that just before the Arbella reached the harbor of Salem 

 Ihey caught with a few hooks, in two hours, no less than seventy-six codfish, 'some a yard and a half long and a yard 

 in compass.' All the accounts returned to England by the pioneer emigrants concurred in extravagant praise of tlie 

 nrw country, and we now read their quaint and highly-colored narratives as amusing curiosities of literature. * * * 



'' 'The abundance of sea fish' (says Mr. Higginson, 1629) 'is almost beyond believing, and sure I should scarce 

 liave believed it, except I had seen it with mine own eyes.' He had seen hundreds of bass seined at one time in our 

 own waters, and mentions lobsters as being so abundant that even boys could catch them. But of lobsters, he says, 

 as for myself I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and luscious.'" ' 



The curing, culling, and final disposition of the fish caught are described by Mr. Cheever: 



"Fish being the great staple of Salem, as of the colony, was of course the early object of the care and attention 

 of the legislature. Laws were passed protecting it as well as the fishermen. The curing of it seems to have become 

 at least a distinct business, left to those called shoremen who received the fish on return of the fishers and cured 

 and dried it. It then passed under the review of the cullers, who were sworn officers, certainly after 1700, and was 

 divided into merchantable, middling, and refuse; also, scale fish. The first two went to Spanish and the first-class 

 markets, the refuse to the slaves in the West Indies, and perhaps the poorer classes of Europe. The fish from Acadia 

 (Nova Scotia) (Cape Sable fish) was in great demand in Bilboa, Spain, as being a superior fish, and was largely shipped 

 there. Marblehead sent this description of fish to Spain even after our American Revolution. In 1670 the legislature 

 denounced the use of Tortuga (West India) salt on account of its impurity, and fish cured by it was made unmer- 

 chantable by law. Winter Island and the adjoining Neck seem to have been especially devoted in Salem to the 

 fisheries; Winter Island being in 1695, and yet later, the headquarters, to judge by history, tradition, and old papers. 

 How far Salem may have been engaged in the whale-fishery is dubious. Some of her sous may have gone down to 

 Cape Cod on such an errand; for the Cape, as late as 1714, was so largely visited by cod and whale fishers that the 

 general court that year made all the province lands there a precinct and the visitors to it (fishermen) support a 

 settled minister at 60 per annum by a tax of 4 pence a week levied on each seaman, to be paid by the master of the 

 boat for the whole company. This was in the days when no man was permitted to be absent from church a month, 

 jf in health, without presentation before the grand jury, and punishment by a fine of 20 shillings." 8 



The same writer thus describes the fisheries and vessels used in the same, which, when developed further, led to 

 the elevation of Massachusetts as a State noted for its prominence in the fisheries: 



"The English had freely used the coast of New England for the fisheries before the settlement at Salem, and the 

 toyal charter reserved this right to Englishmen after the settlement, a right which was freely used, it seems. New- 

 foundland had an English settlement at the time. 



"The early fisheries were quite profitable, to judge from Levett's account of the trade in 1623-'24, wherein ho 

 says he has 'attained to the understanding of its secrets.' According to him, a ship of 2CO tons, with a crew of fifty 

 men, the ordinary crew of such sized vessels in the fisheries, would be at an outlay of some 800, the cost for nine 

 months' victualing, &c. One-third of the catch, 'fish and train,' being deducted as 'fraught' for the owners, another 

 as a share for the crew, and the balance for expenses, the owner's one-third part of the cargo would yield 1,340 'for 

 disbursing of 800 nine months.' The cargo sold in Spanish,ports from 36 to 44 rials per quintal. Our Salem fishing 

 craft were not so large as Levett's 'ship,' but were shallops of from 10 to 20 tons, say, ketches of from 20 to 40, and 

 finally schooneis from 30 to 60, or more, carrying not more than from four to eight or ten men, say. Small boats 

 were perhaps used at first. Still the trade was profitable, Salem and Massachusetts being built up by it in the early 

 <hiy. r Plk fisheries and the timber trade gave Salem doubtless two-thirds or more of her early wealth." 



FISH AND FISHING, 1616 TO 1635. Felt, referring to the abundant supply of herring iu 1616 and previous to 

 that date, has recorded this statement, made more than two hundred and fifty years ago : 



"Iu Virginia they never manure their overworn fields, which are very few, the ground for the most part is so 

 fertile ; but in New England they do, striking at every plant of corn a herring or two, which comet h in that season in 

 finch abundance they take more than they know what to do with." 3 



Felt then adds (quoting another statement made somewhat later than the above): 



' After fish became scarce, though abundance were taken for food of the inhabitants and for exportation to foreign 

 ports, the supplies of the bainyard and of the sea-shore were of course more depended on to strengthen our lands." 



The same author says : 



"A letter from the company iu London to Mr. Endicott in 1629, among other things spoke of 'building shallops 

 for the fishing business, by six shipwrights then here. One of these mechanics, Robert Moultou, was master work- 

 man. It proposed fishing iu the harbor or on the banks. It requested, that if the ship, which had arrived with emi- 

 grants, should bo sent to fish on the bank, and not return hither immediately, ' the bark already built in the country,' 

 mi^ht lie fitted out to bring back the fishermen.' We perceive from this that a vessel had been made, most probably 

 at Naiinikcag ; and that the Desire, afterwards launched at Marble Harbor, was not the first vessel built in the colony, 

 as some have supposed. The fishermen just mentioned Lad been employed in England to reside here for teaching 

 aud encouraging their business. A storehouse was erected for the shipwrights and their provision, by an order of 

 April 17, and another for fishermen and their stores, by an order of May 28. Records were to be kept of their stock, 

 provisions, and proceedings." 



1 Bm&t lottltnto Hist, Cotl , TO). U, p. 3. ' Ibid, vol. i [1859], \\. l'J2. Anna's of Salem, M.I i. vd i'il , p.243. 



