280 THE OCEAN RIVER 



both winter and summer fishing. Thirdly, New England was 

 well situated for the triangle of trade between North America, 

 the West Indies, and Europe. In this round-the-ocean voyage 

 cheap salt for the fisheries could be picked up at the Canary 

 Isles — together with the good local wine. The ships trading 

 directly from the Banks to the West Indies and the Canaries 

 as carriers of fish but not actual fishermen were called ''sack 

 boats," probably because they hauled back to London the 

 ''sec" wines of the Canaries. A writer of this time says: "Ye 

 New England traders were the key to the Indies (carrying 

 beef, pork, fish, bisket and lumber) without which Jamaica, 

 Barbadoes and ye Charibby Isles could not exist." 



In the 1700's the community of the Atlantic, nourished by 

 the warmth and the undersea riches of the Ocean River, began 

 to come into its own. Its western shores were fully explored, 

 and its dominant triangular trade routes from England to the 

 colonies, to the West Indies and back again to Europe, in 

 spite of the artificial interruptions of attempted absentee con- 

 trol, operated either legitimately or by smuggling and semi- 

 piracy. Along with this commercial growth a natural improve- 

 ment in the techniques of an ocean civilization developed. In 

 the Caribbean the pirates gradually became the planters and 

 traders, if not governors like Sir Henry Morgan. Invention 

 forwarded the art of sail; lines lengthened, taking away the 

 awkward tubbiness of vessels, the high poops were removed 

 as trade became paramount over warfare, compass variation 

 was mastered in navigation, and capstans and winches made 

 for economy of manpower. Just after the turn of the eight- 

 eenth century the steering wheel was introduced, and the 

 first schooner was launched at Marblehead. 



This added vigor naturally bred stronger commercial com- 

 petition between England and her fast-growing colonial 

 empire in the west. The stage was set for the gradual tighten- 

 ing of this competition and the ultimate and inevitable Revo- 



