186 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



mackerel fisheries are recorded for 1831, carrying 412 men. 

 The value of the catch was $160,490. A writer of the time 

 estimates that this amount gave to each of the men on 

 an average, after all expenses are deducted, $214 for eight 

 months' fishing. The most prosperous season for Marble- 

 head was in 1839 when there were 98 fishing vessels, only 

 three of which were under fifty tons burden. Six years 

 later, when the period of decline had set in, the 65 fishing 

 vessels of the town had a tonnage of 5,039 tons and 463 

 hands employed. These vessels landed 40,500 quintals of 

 cod, which with other products of the sea had a total value 

 of $123,256. 1 The number of vessels had fallen off to 

 48 in 1856 ; but the value of the catch, which was smaller 

 than that of 1845, was $163,656. During the war the num- 

 ber of vessels in the codfishery declined from sixty-one in 

 1862 to twenty-five in 1866. 



Since the Revolution, Boston has held high rank as a 

 center for the commerce of the fishing industries. Down 

 to the middle of the century, at least, Boston was the 

 chief mart for the sale of dried fish, and a resort for fish- 

 ermen of all classes for outfits. A large portion of the 

 imports of fishery products into the country centered in 

 Boston. 2 Between 1810 and 1826, more than half of 

 the total mackerel catch of the State was brought to 

 Boston to be sold. From 1804 to 1840, excepting one year 

 when GJoucester took the lead, Boston held first place 

 in Massachusetts in the number of barrels of mackerel in- 

 spected yearly. During the thirty years from 1821 to 

 1851, the imports of dried and pickled fish into the port 

 of Boston consisted of 47,782 quintals of dried fish, valued 

 at $111,643, and 379,587 barrels of pickled fish, valued at 

 $2,126,128. For the eight years from 1843 to 1851, the 

 exports of American caught fish from Boston consisted of 



1 Niles' National Register, Vol. Ixx, p. 21. 



2 Hunt, Vol. xxiii, pp. 487-88. 



