122 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



British men-of-war as they had been but a few weeks be- 

 fore to cast their lines on the Grand Bank of Newfound- 

 land. In this way hundreds of fishing schooners were fitted 

 out as privateers, manned by fishermen in numbers reach- 

 ing into the thousands. Many fishermen enlisted in the 

 land service, too, and gave good account of themselves at 

 Bunker Hill, Trenton, and other places. But the sea held 

 by far the greater number of enlisted fishermen. This was 

 but natural, as the sea was their chosen home, and men 

 who had been driven from the scene of their daily toil in 

 securing a living for themselves and families found 

 no better place for redressing their wrongs than at the 

 place where the wrong was committed. How readily and 

 successfully the fisherman of New England transformed 

 his vessel into a speedy privateer and himself into an ef- 

 fective fighting seaman speak volumes of praise in favor 

 of his character as a patriotic citizen. 



While the burdensome effects of the war fell most 

 severely upon the larger port-towns of the coast, par- 

 ticularly Marblehead, Gloucester and Salem, there was no 

 fishing village of New England, however humble, that 

 did not realize from bitter experience the hard lot that 

 befalls maritime industries in time of war. At the Isles 

 of Shoals, the Whigs were called upon by their enemies 

 for articles of sustenance and for naval recruits; having 

 been commanded to abandon their homes, the majority of 

 the people moved to the mainland, never to return to 

 their native isles. Newburyport, which set up a rival 

 claim to Portsmouth for the honor of sending out the 

 first privateer, despatched a fleet of twenty-two ships from 

 her harbor, manned with over one thousand men, which 

 never again were heard from. 1 War put a stop to the 

 fisheries of Gloucester. Some of her schooners were fitted 

 out as privateers, others rotted at the wharves. Two com- 



iGoode, See. II, p. 682. 



