HISTORICAL REFERENCES: MASSACHUSETTS. 733 



Mr. Samuel Osborne, jr., the owner or agent of the whaling fleet now hailing from Edgartown, states that this 

 place has for many years hud vessels in the whale-fishery. In 1858 the fleet numbered 19 sail ; in 1879 it was reduced 

 to 4 sail, and iu 1881 numbered 6 vessels. In early times many of the Nautucket fleet fitted here, and thus brought 

 considerable profit to the town. During the Into war several vessels were sold away from here, and the death of two 

 or three capitalists prior to 1870 caused a withdrawal of vessels to other ports. The business of whaling has made a 

 good many people wealthy in the town. Nearly every voyage in the last teu years has yielded a profit. There are 

 said to be no poor people iu the town, the valuation of $3,000,000 being well distributed among the 1,300 inhabitants. 

 A number of retired whaling merchants reside here, and own parts of vessels in other ports. There are also some 

 ladies who own shares in vessels. 



In 1778 ships of the British navy made forays iu the sea-coast towns of New England. At Holmes' Hole 4 vessels, 

 with several boats, were destroyed, and iu Old Town (Edgartown) Harbor, Martha's Vineyard, a brig of 150- tons, a 

 schooner of 70 tons, and 23 whale-boats were destroyed. 



In regard to the growth of other fisheries besides the whale-fishery at Martha's Vineyard we have no information 

 until 1807. In 1603, however, the shores are said to have abounded with fish and shell-fish of various kinds. 



In 1807 the clam-fishery was carried on at Edgartown. Two thousand dollars' worth of clams, at $9 per barrel, 

 were sold in Edgartown in that year. At that time they were also beginning to be taken in Menemsha Pond and 

 other places for bait. Oysters also occurred on the south shore in two brackish ponds. Lobsters were scarce, and 

 only found about the wharves at Edgartown. 



For a number of years prior to 1848 three banking vessels were owned at Edgartown. 



In 1807 there was one fishing vessel at Holmes' Hole. 



The manufacture of salt was carried on at Martha's Vineyard as on Cape Cod. In 1807 there were three sets of 

 salt works at Edgartown, covering 2,700 feet, and in Tisbury five sets, covering 8,900 feet. The manufacture was 

 then on the incivase. 



That oysters were once natives of Martha's Vineyard is evident from the following paragraph, quoted from a 

 description of the island in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, second series, 1807, page 58: 



"The oyster is found iu Newtown Pond, and in two other ponds on the south shore, one of which is in Edgartown, 

 and the other iu Tisbury. It is fresh to the taste, but it is improved in its relish and rendered fatter by digging a 

 canal through the beach and letting the salt water flow into the fresh-water ponds. As the southerly wind soou (ills 

 up the canal, the, digging must be renewed four or five times in a year. 



ELIZABETH ISLANDS AJS'D WAKE II AM. 



EAUI.Y IIisTcuiY OF TUB FISHERIES. On Nonamasset Island in 1807 was"one dwelling, containing two families, 

 and about DUO fWt of salt works built in the year 18C5. The fishes are the same as those of the vicinity, but 

 lobsters, which arc scarce at Martha's Vineyard, are caught in great abundance at all the Elizabeth Islands." 1 



Gosuold's voyagers, in 1002, found at the Elizabeth Islands " divers sorts of shell-fish, as scollops, muscles, 

 cockles, lobsters, crabs, oysters, and wilks, exceeding good and very great." 3 



THE KI.SIIKIJIES OF WAKRHAM IN 1815. The following description of Wareham iu 1815 is given in vol. iv, 2d series, 

 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, pp. 286-289: 



"The Wemeautic, the sources of which are in Carver, attains the name of river on the southwestern borders 

 of Wareham, where it may be 3 rods in width. ' * * Alewives ascend this stream to two ponds in Carver. 

 Agawam Brook, issuing from a pond in Plymouth, may be 8 or 9 miles long. * * * Trout, 

 which abound, are very partial to this stream, doubtless loving its cold sources. The general course of this brook is 

 southwest, up which the alewives have ever ascended, in vast numbers, to Half Way Pond, Plymouth. * The 

 whale-fishery in the West India seas, and on the coasts of the United States, has been formerly pursued with that 

 precarious success incident to the employ, probably before the Revolution, and much more so since. * * The 

 fish, common to this bay, are found at Wareham, such as tataug, sheepshead (now become rare), rock, and streaked 

 bass, sqnitteag, scuppeag, eels, with the migratory fish, menhaden, and alewives. One codfish having been caught 

 within the Narrows (say thirty years since), is the only instance o'f this fish nearer than the open bay, or Gay Head. 

 The quahung clam \s common, and the oyster is taken in two or more places. The latter, which is of small size, is 

 frequently carried for sale overland to Plymouth." 



EAST WAREHAM IN 1870-'" 1. The Gloucester Telegraph, of May 7, 1870, stated that Wareham realized $605 

 that year from the sale of the right to catch herring in the Agawam River in that town. 



The New Bedford Evening Standard of April 24, 1871. reported as follows for that year : 



" WAREHAM. The first catch of alewives for the season iu the Agawam River, in Wareham, was on Friday of 

 last week. The privilege was purchased the present year for $600 by a party in Plymouth, whose inhabitants have 

 equal rights to the fishery with citizens of Wareham. 



"Mr. George Sanford, of East Wareham, who has bought the right to fish this stream for the past fourteen years, 

 informs us that there has been a gradual decrease of fish for the last six years, and that although during this period 

 there has been no perceivable diminution of small alewives in their annual passage from the ponds to the sea, the 

 number of adults taken last year was less than one-half caught in 1864. Mr. S. states that large quantities of white 

 perch have been caught iu the river this season by hook-and-liue fishermen." 



1 A description of Dukes County, August 13, 1807, in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. iii, 1807, 2d series, pp. 75, 79. 

 'Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. viii, 2d series, p. 89. 



