146 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



gleaned from these records to show that the recovery of 

 the fishing interests after the Revolution was very slow; 

 however, the industry was generally carried on along the 

 whole water front at the opening of the next decade. The 

 war of 1812 was disastrous to the industry but the recovery 

 from this war was rapid. By 1818, ships of large tonnage 

 were being built to engage in fisheries in more distant 

 regions. 



The fishery at Piscataqua and its neighborhood, accord- 

 ing to Belknap, for the year 1791, not including the fish- 

 eries of the Isles of Shoals, employed in the cod and scale 

 fishery twenty-seven schooners and twenty boats, aggregat- 

 ing six hundred and thirty tons, and carrying two hundred 

 and fifty men. The products of the New Hampshire fish- 

 eries for the year 1791, including those of the Isles of 

 Shoals, were 5,170 quintals of merchantable fish, 14,217 

 quintals of Jamaica fish, and 6,463 quintals of scale fish; 

 making the total 25,850 quintals. 1 It was estimated that 

 the total number of seamen belonging to New Hampshire 

 for the year 1791 was 500 employed in foreign trade, 

 fifty in the coast trade, and 250 in the fisheries. Some 

 of the seamen who in summer were employed in the fish- 

 eries were, in winter, engaged in the coast and foreign 

 trade. 



While there was a general revival of the fisheries along 

 the whole water front of Maine and in New Hampshire 

 after the establishment of the Federal Government, the 

 greatest development was to be found in Massachusetts 

 the mother-state of this industry. The deep-sea indus- 

 tries of Massachusetts since the Revolution have continu- 

 ously outrivaled those of all other states to the present 

 time, as they did for a century and a half previous to 

 that war. From Newburyport to New Bedford the revival 

 of this industry went on, in places recovering slowly and 



i Belknap, History of New Hampshire, III, pp. 157-160. 



