GROWTH AND EXPANSION 61 



merchantable and refuse fish, 38% quintals of core- 

 fish, eleven hogsheads of train-oil, and other products of 

 the sea, valued at not less than 2,292. The inventory of 

 the property belonging to the fishery showed that there 

 were three boats, which, with their moorings and fittings, 

 were worth 28; two old boats worth 2; the fishing stage 

 and a quantity of casks worth 10 6s ; six dozen hooks, at 

 16 shillings ; five dozen lines, at 7 ; one seine and two old 

 nets, 4 10s ; about ninety hogsheads of salt, valued at 

 65 10s ; and that there was due the concern the sum of 

 84 15s. 9d. for one hundred and thirty-three quintals of 

 fish sold but not paid for. 1 



Public interest in the fisheries was further manifested 

 in 1641. It was ordered by the General Court that fisher- 

 men should be served first at the weirs and have their bait 

 at the same rate at which others secured it. By another 

 act, a fishing station was established at Nantasket, and 

 inducements were offered to the inhabitants of Hingham 

 and other places to remove to the new station. Shore 

 room for stages and flakes was to be furnished, while 

 for every boat used in fishing, four acres of upland were 

 allowed the owner, with a portion of meadow for the fish- 

 ermen who owned cattle. 2 In the same year the Plymouth 

 people allowed Mr. John Jenny certain privileges at l 

 Clarke's Island for the making of salt which was to be 

 sold to the inhabitants at two shillings per bushel. In 

 1642, with the hope of further increasing the salt output, 

 the colony granted the use of thirty acres at the island to 

 five partners for the term of twenty-one years. 8 



The colonists now began their first attempts at fishing 

 beyond the limits of the New England waters. It was the 

 beginning of a movement which, at first directed to the 



1 Sabine, p. 107. 



2 Mass. Col. Rec., I, pp. 326-328. 



s Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Ill, 2nd series, p. 183. 



