96 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



dried cod came from New England than from Newfound- 

 land because the Tortugas salt used at the former place 

 was more fiery than the milder salt from Lisbon and Bay 

 of Biscay that was in use at Newfoundland. The New 

 England fishermen generally cured or dried their fish on 

 hurdles or brush, the apparatus being called flakes. All 

 codfish caught from the beginning of June to the beginning 

 of October were called summer fish; the others, spring or 

 fall fish. The staple food for fishermen was salt pork, 

 biscuit and rum. 



The fisheries of Marblehead, at this time the most exten- 

 sive of any in the colonies, employed about 120 schooners 

 in 1747, and only fifty-five the following year. There 

 were twenty at Cape Ann, eight at Salem and six at 

 Ipswich. They used to make five fares yearly; the first 

 to Sable Island, made in March; the second to Brown's 

 Bank and other banks near Cape Sable, for spring fish; 

 their third and fourth fares were to George's Bank for 

 summer fish ; the last fare, to Sable Island again for winter 

 cod. The schooners employed in this deep-sea fishery were 

 usually of fifty tons burden, manned with a crew of seven 

 and, one year with another, they made six hundred quintals 

 of fish per schooner. 1 



As it was the custom for the men to "go on their own 

 hook" the returns for the season's work depended fully 

 as much on individual exertions as on fisherman's luck. 

 To prevent the fishermen from deserting before the end 

 of the season for which they had been engaged the General 

 Court of Massachusetts, in 1755, enacted a law providing 

 that no man should receive any share unless he continued 

 for the full term for which he had shipped. 2 At Boston, 

 in 1753, a sum of money was raised by subscription for the 

 encouragement of the codfishery. Sixty dollars was to be 



i Douglass, Summary, pp. 537-538. 

 sWeeden, II, p. 650. 



