THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Herbert B. Turner 



FISHING CRAFT AT GLOUCESTER 



At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Gloucester was 

 second only to Marblehead as a fishing port. The industry suffered 

 a blow during that period from which it did not fully revive until 

 the Civil War. 



ployed at sea on board a ship are called 

 "sailors" by landsmen, but seamen narrow 

 the embrace of the term down to those 

 who can steer, equip, repair, and handle 

 the canvas of a sailing craft under sea 

 conditions. All others are deck-hands 

 and seamen. 



Sailors of the orthodox class even go 

 a step further and designate all the per- 

 sonnel of a steamer as "steamboat-men." 

 They consider the terms "seamen" and 

 "sailor" to be sacred to ships driven by 

 wind and canvas. 



It has been my privilege to sail and 

 steam the oceans in many kinds of craft, 



ranging from the ro- 

 mantic full - rigged 

 clipper ship to the oil- 

 burning greyhounds 

 of twenty-knot speed, 

 and from the grace- 

 ful, sea-kindly Grand 

 Bank fishing schooner 

 to the sturdy steam- 

 trawler of North Sea 

 type ; but in all my 

 voyaging I am in- 

 clined to the belief 

 that the only real 

 "sailors" we have to- 

 day, in this mechan- 

 ical age, are to be 

 found in the Bank 

 fishermen of North 

 America's Atlantic 

 coasts. 



The sailors I refer 

 to are the crews of 

 the beautiful fishing 

 schooners that sail 

 out of the fishing 

 ports of Newfound- 

 land, the Maritime 

 Provinces of Canada, 

 and the New England 

 States of America ; 

 and the ports which 

 claim most of them 

 are Lunenburg, in 

 Nova Scotia, and 

 Gloucester and Bos- 

 ton, in Massachusetts. 

 These deep-sea fish- 

 ermen are a distinct- 

 ive type peculiar to 

 the North American 

 Atlantic coast. Racially they are from 

 the sturdy pioneer breeds of Highland 

 Scotch, Hanoverian German, West 

 Country English, and West Irish which 

 settled in Newfoundland, eastern Canada, 

 Maine, and Massachusetts when America 

 was young. Landing on the shores of 

 the new land, they made their homes 

 above tide-water and farmed, cut timber, 

 and fished. To reach their markets they 

 had to use the sea, and they built their 

 own vessels to transport their goods. 



The succeeding generations of men 

 were, therefore, farmers, fishermen, wood- 

 workers, and sailors. 



