USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Gloucester > The fisheries of Gloucester : from the first catch by the English in 1623, to the centennial year, 1876 > Part 1
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85. 700 P/E
Lelia D. adams
Copyrighted 1876, by PROCTER BROTHERS.
The Fisheries
OF GLOUCESTER,
FROM 1623 TO 1876,
WITH
NOTABLE FACTS AND STATISTICS CONNECTED THEREWITH.
ALSO, THE
Granite Interest, and the Advantages of Cape Ann as a Place of Summer Resort.
GLOUCESTER: PROCTER BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, ADVERTISER OFFICE. 1876.
1
85.700P/
Lelia D. adams
THE
Fisheries of Gloucester
FROM THE
FIRST CATCH BY THE ENGLISH
IN 1623,
To the Centennial Year, 1870.
GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN; DEVELOPMENT OF THE FISHING BUSINESS ; VARIOUS BRANCHES ; STATIS- TICS OF CATCH; MODELS OF VESSELS;
The Granite Interest ; The Advantages of Cape Ann as a Place of Summer Resort, Etc., Etc.
GLOUCESTER : PROCTER BROTHERS, Publishers, . CAPE ANN ADVERTISER OFFICE.
of Page 20 "Boat fishing chiefly carried on at annisquan Page 80 regarding extensive new.
PREFACE.
IN this centennial year of the nation, when all the world is to be represented at Philadelphia, our young city by the sea, through some of her leading citi- CENTENNIAL zens, felt a strong desire to add her trib- ute to the exhibition, and let the people know what she had been doing for a hundred years or more.
The Centennial fever was raging everywhere, and the symptoms were soon manifest in our community. Meetings were held, and it was determined that the fishing business, which Gloucester had pur- sued so long and clung to so tenaciously, through good seasons and poor, through sacrifices of life and property which are indeed appall- ing, should be represented. To this end a committee was appointed, and owing to their untiring zeal and labors there may be seen in the Gloucester department of the Agricultural Building at Philadelphia, a tank 23 x 12 feet, filled with water, in which correct models of the fishing fleet, of the olden time and of modern times, are afloat, illus- trative of the various branches of the fisheries. A miniature wharf, of the present day, perfect in all its details, and a cob wharf of the olden time, a graving dock and marine railway, make into the tank, while crews of miniature model fishermen, clad in the garments pe- culiar to their avocation, impart animation to the scene, the whole giving a vivid idea of the manner in which the fisheries of Glouces-
ter are pursued. About the tank may be seen specimens of the products of the fisheries, of fishing gear, cordage and various patent- ed articles of merit used in the business, together with specimens of minerals, mosses, shells, coral, sea-corn, and other curious produc- tions of old Neptune's garden at the bottom of the sea, brought in by the fishermen or gathered along our beaches.
In connection with this exhibition, this pamphlet has been prepar- ed, giving a history of Gloucester and of her advancement in that
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branch of industry in which she has attained such a prominent posi- tion, that, in this Centennial year, she can safely challenge any port in the world to a comparison with her catch of fish, her clipper ves- sels, and the enterprise and daring with which the business is prose- cuted. She stands to-day at the head of the fisheries, as headquart- ers for the purchasing of fish, from first hands, a fact which a walk about her wharves demonstrates to a certainty. The telegraph brings orders daily from all portions of the country, and the facilities for transportation are such as to warrant purchasers to send their orders direct to Gloucester. If another half-century witnesses such rapid growth and progress in this branch, as the past has developed, we may expect to see the shores of her outer harbor lined with wharves, the much talked of breakwater on Dog Bar completed, the marginal railroad in active operation, horse railroads around the Cape and throughout the city, her population doubled, and vacant lots on hill- side and valley, covered with neat dwelling houses.
GLOUCESTER AND HER FISHERIES.
....
VIEW OF GLOUCESTER IN 1830.
CHAPTER .1.
GEOLOGICAL -ISLANDS-FIRST OCCUPATION OF TERRITORY -EARLY SETTLEMENT-GROWTH OF TOWN-DIVISION OF LANDS -SHIP BUILDING -MILITARY SERVICES, ETC.
HE northern promontory of Massachusetts Bay, known as Cape Ann, on which the City of Gloucester is situated, is a headland of about five miles in average breadth and extend- ing about nine miles from the main land into the Atlantic Ocean. Its geological features are remarkable, and, at first sight, strike ev- ery beholder with astonishment. The under-lying formation seems to be everywhere of solid granite, which rises to the surface over a considerable portion of the territory, and in several places is thrown up many feet above, forming rocky hills and extensive and precipi- tous ledges. Scattered thickly, too, all over the territory are bould- ers of every size, having, in many instances, such regularity of shape and vast magnitude as to entitle them to no mean rank as natural curiosities. In a few places these boulders are heaped together in immense masses, extending over large tracts of the surface, where the eye seeks in vain for signs of vegetation or even for soil to sup- port it. These peculiar features of Cape Ann give a somewhat rug- ged and sterile aspect to the scenery, but this is amply compensated
-
C
by the unrivalled attractions of beauty and sublimity which the ocean here presents.
Off the head of the Cape, and quite near the shore, lie three islands worthy of mention on account of some historical note ; for they are the same islands, fronting "the fair headland Tragabig- zanda," named the Three Turks' Heads by Capt. John Smith, in 1614. They are now known by other names, one of which, Thach- er, perpetuates the memory of the first and most distressing ship- wreek that ever happened on the Cape, by which, in August, 1635, about twenty persons, men, women and children, lost their lives at that island, upon which Mr. Anthony Thacher and his wife were thrown alive by the sea, and were the only survivors.
The first occupation of Cape Ann by people of the English race was in 1623, when a fishing vessel, sent by a company in England with a view to the establishment of a settlement somewhere on the coast, not being able to complete her lading at the usual fishing grounds on the coast of Maine, " the master thought good to pass into Mattachusetts Bay, to try whether that would yield him any." Here he succeeded ; and, having completed his cargo, proceeded with the same to Spain ; having left fourteen men " in the country at Cape Anne," for the purpose, without doubt, of beginning the work of the plantation projected by the English company. History refuses to gratify us with any further information concerning these men, but we know that, besides the pilgrims at Plymouth, the only other persons of European parentage they could then find within the present limits of Massachusetts were a few persons at Nantasket and a few others at Weymouth.
Early in the next year (1624) the same ship, commanded by the same master, and accompanied by another vessel of one hundred and forty tons, came again to Cape Ann, and, after an unsuccessful sea- son's fishing, returned to England, leaving now thirty-two men to remain at the plantation. Not discouraged by the ill success of this year the adventurers in England continued their efforts to establish a permanent colony on the shores of Cape Ann, and sent, in the next year, three vessels, one of which, of about forty tons, brought out " kine and other provisions." They also appointed a competent man, Roger Conant, to be its governor ; but from various causes their enterprise came to an end this year and the plantation was broken up. Mr. Conant, with some of his companions, removed a few miles further west to Naumkeag, now Salem, where, soon after, " a new colony upon the old foundation," was established, which, in
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DAVIS & FEARS,
MANUFACTURERS OF STANDARD
Black and Yellow
OIL CLOTHING,
Lincoln and Cape Ann Sou' Westers,
FANCY AND CAPE ANN LONG COATS, OUTFITS, &C.
OUR STANDARD BLACK OIL CLOTHING
is the only genuine in the market, as we are the only parties having the patent process of mixing and applying the BLACK PREPARATION.
Also our YELLOW is not excelled by any manufacturer in the country, being made from the best Cotton Cloth in the market, and using pure boiled LINSEED OIL which is prepared expressly for us, we can warrant them perfect in every respect.
SEND FOR PRICE LIST. SAMPLES SENT IF REQUIRED. Office and Manufactory,
GLOUCESTER, (CAPE ANN,) MASS,
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a short time, became the great Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Du- ring these last two years the Plymouth people seem also to have carried on the fishing business at Cape Ann, having had, in 1625, two vessels engaged in it, but their efforts in this direction were also abandoned at the end of the last named year.
A spot on the westerly side of the principal harbor of the Cape, the largest tract of land on its borders fit for planting, has always been pointed at by tradition as the spot occupied by these first Eng- lish occupants, and early records designate the place as " ffisher- man's field." Here they dried their fish and gave some attention to the cultivation of the soil, receiving an occasional visit from the na- tives probably for purposes of trade; and we can scarcely doubt that they sometimes ascended the high ledge of rock on the shore, so marked a feature on the spot, to look down upon the settlement and the queerly-shaped and singularly-rigged vessels lying at anchor off their "stage" or wharf; and to enjoy a view of the beautiful sheet of water before them, embosomed as it then was in a girdle of the original forest.
How soon after the departure of Conant and his company Cape Ann became the residence of new settlers, it is impossible to tell. From a sermon of the last century it seems to have liad inhabitants in 1633, and there can be no doubt that fishing was " set forward, and some stages builded" as early as 1639. In 1642 the settlement had grown to such consequence by the arrival of Rev. Richard Blyn- man with several others from Plymouth Colony, and a few families from Salem, that, in May of that year, it was established to be a plantation and called Gloucester. The whole number of settlers to the close of 1650 was eighty-two, about one-third of whom remained in town and found here their final resting-place. Of a few of these, Babson, Bray, Day, Elwell, Haskell, Ingersol, Robinson, Sargent, and Somes, descendants continue at the present time.
Strange as it may seem, there is nothing to show that the first settlers of Gloucester were fishermen. A very few may have been engaged in that occupation, in a small way; but it is certain that almost all of them were employed on the land and not on the sea. Several of them were ship-carpenters, and one of these, William Stevens, was one of the most prominent of the settlers. He enjoyed some fame in his occupation before he came to New England, as the builder of the " Royal Merchant," a great ship of 600 tons, at Lon- don ; and we know that he built a ship in Gloucester in 1661; and perhaps he built many others in the intervening years. Though it
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CARTER'S
Standard Oil Clothing
BLACK AND YELLOW.
RTE R' S SSFX
CAPE Made at ANN, TRADE MARK.
Having had a large and direct practical experience with the wants of the
FISHERMEN AND SEAMEN,
and having devoted my whole time exclusively for years to the man- ufacture and improvement of
L CLOTHING
I claim a superiority for my goods over all other manufacturers, and offer them to the trade as the
BEST IN THE MARKET!
For the protection of the trade, all my goods are sold di- rect from the Manufactory, and all orders should be ad- dressed to
J. F. CARTER,
Manufacturer and Sole Proprietor, GLOUCESTER, (CAPE ANN,) MASS.
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seems hardly possible that the town could have been less inviting for agricultural purposes, it is true that many of the first and later settlers took up such scattered tracks of clear land as they could find and derived their means of subsistence chiefly from the cultiva- tion of the soil.
The Church organized by the first settlers was the nineteenth, in the order of formation, in the Colony of Massachusetts. It was not a happy body of Christians for a number of years. Dissensions pre- vailed during Mr. Blynman's ministry, and probably hastened, if they did not induce, his departure from the town. He removed to New London in 1650, and was soon followed by many of the friends who had accompanied him to Cape Ann. The next settled minister was Rev. John Emerson, who came in 1660, and continued till his ministry was closed by death in 1700. A second church was set off from the first in 1716, a third in 1728, a fourth in 1742, and a fifth in 1754, and corresponding divisions of the territory into parishes were also made. These parochial divisions have now no significance whatever, and the religious societies of the city at the present time are entirely independent of them.
The town had slow growth during the first half century of its ex- istence. The whole number of men who became new settlers from 1651 to 1700 inclusive, was only eighty-seven, of whom about fifty became permanent settlers, and were residents of the town when they died. The names of some of them are numerously represented by descendants, and it is not likely that Davis, Hodgkins, Lane, Lufkin, Norwood, Parsons, Pool and Rowe will cease to be the names of living persons on Cape Ann for many generations to come.
In 1700 there were about 700 inhabitants in the town. Nearly all of the tax-payers were commoners, that is, owners of all the territo- tory of the town not yet granted away. Except in one instance, to William Stevens, of five hundred acres on the Chebacco side of An- nisquam River, no very large grant had been made. Only one gen- eral grant in contiguous lots, that of 1688, had been made to all the commoners ; but the possession of the soil was constantly becoming a greater object of desire on account of the fine growth of timber with which it was covered, and it was this, without doubt, which led, in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, to the transfer of all the common land into the hands of the individual proprietors. The town hitherto had been of no importance as a maritime place ; and, at the close of its first half century, all the property it held in vessels was comprised in six sloops, a boat, and a shallop. But a
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RICHARDSON'S PATENT ICE CRUSHER.
BILRU'RN & MALLORY.
Awarded Silver Medal by Ameri- can Institute, N. Y.,
With important and valua- ble improvements,
is now used by all of the Freslr Fish Packers of Gloucester, Mass., also by others on the Atlantic Coast and the Great Lakes who all recommend it as an economical machine, saving ice, labor, time, fish and freight, for, with less la- bor, the ice is crushed so uniformly in size that more fish, with less ice can be packed in the same space, and kept longer and better than with ice crushed by any other method.
Look at one, in Agricultural Building, Columns A and B; 20 and 21 in Gloucester's exhibition of the progress in the fisheries; in Machinery Building, Sec. B 3, Col- umn 19; or in Tufts' Soda Foun- tain Establishments on the Cen- tennial Grounds.
Send for Circular to DAVID W. LOW,
Agent, GLOUCESTER, MASS.
RICHARDSON'S - AND -
THE CENTENNIAL STEERERS
CONTAINING MANY VALUABLE IMPROVEMENTS AND WELL WOR- THY THE ATTENTION OF VESSEL OWNERS.
Four hundred of them are now in use on FISHING VESSELS and YACHTS and have given perfect sat- isfaction. Cheapest and Best Wheels in the market.
In vessels using these Steerers, the wheel can be left in any position without securing it by becket or other- wise. When blowing hard or in a heavy sea, the man at the wheel is in no danger of being injured or " thrown," as the action of the sea has no effect whatever upon the wheel. Nautical men will see the advanta- ges of this in the coasting trade or in vessels short-handed.
It only requires fire and a half rev- olutions of the wheel from hard up to hard down.
For full particulars and references send for pamphlet and price list to
FRED. L. STACY, Agent, GLOUCESTER, MASS.
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season of great activity in ship-building now commenced. Ships and brigantines were built for Boston merchants, and a large num- ber of sloops by people of the town for their own use. Many of the latter were used for the conveyance of wharf timber and other wood to Boston, and some were employed in the distant eastern fisheries ; but there is nothing to show that Gloucester had, before 1700, a single vessel engaged in fishing as far cast as Cape Sable. About this time, however, a vigorous pursuit of this business began, and with varying fortune it has been carried on to the present time. Out of the fisheries of the town grew a commerce with foreign coun- tries-chiefly Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies at first, but finally with many other parts of the globe. This has ceased in late years, and it may be said that now Gloucester sends no merchan- dise across the seas, and with the exception of cargoes of salt for use in her fisheries, receives none. It does however carry on some trade with the British maritime provinces of North America.
This town has worthily borne its share of all public burthens. It sent about one-quarter part of all its men fit for military duty to suppress the great Indian rising of 1675, and always contributed its full quota to the various military expeditions against the French and Indians in the subsequent years till the final reduction of Can- ada. In the memorable year of 1775 the people rose to the full magnitude of the great interests at stake ; and with a prospect of suffering and gloom opening before them, declared that they would defend their liberties at the expense of all that was dear to them. So they had two companies in the battle of Bunker Hill, and sent altogether two hundred and twenty men in the first campaign of the war; and when Capt. Linzee, in the sloop-of-war Falcon, attacked the town in the same year, and attempted plunder and destruction, they boldly met his force and defeated and captured it : and when, after a year of great hardship and suffering, on the 24th of June, 1776, the great question of a declaration of independence by Con- gress came before them at a large town-meeting called on purpose to consider it, they voted unanimously, if Congress should resolve upon the measure, to support them in it with their lives and for- tunes. In ten days the Declaration was proclaimed to the world. The immortal document was read from all the pulpits of Gloucester, and copied into the records of the town. It was also copied into the records of the Third Parish, whose patriotic clerk, Thomas Mar- ett, added-" May God Bless these Free and Independent States
·
·
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NEW ENGLAND FISH CO.,
(SUCCESSORS TO A. W. DODD,)
Wholesale Dealers in and Ship- pers of
Fresh Ljalibut, Codfish & Haddock, DODD'S WHARF, GLOUCESTER, MASS. A. W. BRAY, Agent.
GLOUCESTER FISH CO. WHOLESALE DEALERS AND SHIPPERS OF
Fresh Halibut,
COD, HADDOCK,
Salt and Pickled Fish, Fears' Wharf,
Gloucester, Mass.
W. H. OAKES, S. G. POOL,
W. H. GARDNER.
STOCKBRIDGE & CO., SHIPPERS OF
FRESH HALIBUT,
and Wholesale Dealers in
FRESH AND SALT FISH,
STEAMBOAT WHARF,
SETH STOCKBRIDGE, D. I. ROBINSON.
Foot of Duncan Street, Gloucester, Mass.
UNION FISH CO.,
Wholesale Dealers and Shippers of
FRESH FISH,
PARKHURST'S WHARF,
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
STONE, RICHARDS & CO., ) ANDREWS, RICH & CO., P. H. PRIOR & CO.
WM. H. COOK, Agent and Treas.
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Till Time shall be no more, with Liberty, Peace, and Safety. May America be Emanuel's Land. Amen and Amen."
The Revolutionary War brought great poverty and distress upon the people of the town. Their own soil afforded but a scanty sup- ply of the necessaries of life, and they were obliged to send vessels to Virginia for the corn which they could not raise at home. Their commerce and fisheries were destroyed. The young and middle- aged men fell victims to the war-some on the battle-field, some by sickness at camp, some in prison ships, and many in the depths of the ocean. More than one hundred went down at sea, in two pri- vateer ships which were never heard from after their last departure from home ; and more than three hundred, about one-third of all the able-bodied men of the town, who had bravely entered into the con- test for liberty, were no longer among the living when the great blessing of independence was secured. With this result achieved and a wide field for energy opened, the people resumed their former pursuits, and though the ante-revolutionary prosperity of the fisher- ies was not fully restored, they found in that branch and a success- ful foreign commerce sufficient returns to yield them all the substan- tial enjoyments of existence.
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HIGGINS & GIFFORD
Manufacturers of
YACHTS,
SAIL BOATS, ROW BOATS, YAWL BOATS, QUARTER BOATS,
SEINE BOATS, PILOT CANOES, LAUNCHES, DINKEYS, and RIES.
NEW AND SECOND-HAND
Seine Boats, Dories and Yawl Boats,
CONSTANTLY ON HAND. ALSO,
Dealers in Boat Trimmings.
REFERENCES :- Most any fitter in Gloucester or New England.
P. O. Box, No. 130, GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send for Price List.
WM. H. WONSON & SON,
WHOLESALE DEALERS IN AND CURERS OF
SMOKED FISH.
All Orders, by mail or otherwise, promptly attended to.
WM. H. WONSON, 1 WM. H. WONSON, 3D. S
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
SMITH & GOTT,
Wholesale Fish Dealers, 149 JACKSON STREET,
SYLVANUS SMITH,
1
ADDISON GOTT, JR. S
Gloucester, Mass.
VIEW OF THE OLD FORT AND HARBOR IN 1837, WITH GRAND BANKER AND PINKEY AT ANCHOR.
CHAPTER 2.
EARLY FISHERIES-NEW SETTLEMENT-FISHING LOSSES-FISHERIES PREVIOUS TO THE REVOLUTION.
Nature has marked out the principal employments to which the people who dwell on Cape Ann must resort for the means of sub- sistence. When they want bread they may, indeed, according as the demand for granite is great or small, get it from stone ; but their chief reliance must be upon the occupations which call upon men to go down to the sea in ships. We have already seen that the first of the English race who occupied its shores were attracted by the advantages here offered for carrying on " the great sea busi- ness of fishing."
About twenty years before the period just alluded to, Gosnold, the first navigator known to have visited the coast, so "pestered his ships" with codfish, while lying off one of its capes, that that head- land, from this, circumstance, then received the name it has ever since borne-Cape Cod. Twelve years later (1614) another Eng- lish captain, the famous John Smith, found about Monhegan, on the coast of Maine, " within a square of two or three leagues," the " strangest fish-pond " he ever saw ; where, in 1619, an English ship got a fare that yielded twenty-one hundred pounds in money ; and where, the next year, several ships did even better than that. His account of the abundance of fish in those waters has even a touch of
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GEORGE PERKINS & SON,
WHOLESALE
DEALERS IN
Dry Fish, Mackerel, Smoked Halibut, & C., GLOUCESTER, MASS.
JOSEPH O. PROCTER,
INSPECTOR AND WHOLESALE DEALER IN
Ary and Pickled Fish,
COMMERCIAL STREET,
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
PROCTER, TRASK & CO.,
WHOLESALE
FISH DEALERS,
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
And 505 N. 2d Street, - - ST. LOUIS.
GEO. P. TRIGG & CO., WHOLESALE DEALERS IN
Dry & Pickled Fish,
PROVISIONS, &c.,
182 Duane Street, NEW YORK, and GLOUCESTER, MASS.
SIMEON M. AYERS.
GEO. P. TRIGG, 1 N. B. Manufacturers of the Celebrated EURE- KA and BONELESS FISH.
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poetic rapture ; for he asks " what sport doth yield a more pleasing content, and less hurt or charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the sweet air, from isle to isle, over the silent streams of a calin sea." From the date of Capt. Smith's voyage English ships continued to resort to the coast of Maine for fish for several years, but their visits appear to have ceased soon after the settlement of the country. He tells us that thirty-five came in 1622, the year be- fore the voyage of the one that came first as far to the west as Cape Ann. These fishing voyages to the coast of Maine led to the estab- lishment of several fishing plantations in that part of the country, and before 1640 it seems that at Pemaquid, Casco Bay, Cape Por- poise, Piscataqua, the Isles of Shoals, and perhaps at some other places, settlements had already been made, from one of whichi, in the six years from 1639 to 1645, three thousand quintals of fish were exported. The Pilgrims at Plymouth do not appear to have engaged in fishing as a regular employment ; but, in the first settle- ment of the Massachusetts Colony, at Salem, we find preparations for fishing ; for, in 1629, materials for the business were sent over, and mention is made of fishermen among the settlers ; and, as early as 1634, a merchant of the country was fishing with eight boats at Marblehead.
The last date brings us to notice a new settlement on our own shores, which was made in 1633 ; but no facts authorize us to say that the settlers were fishermen, or, indeed, what their employments were. The lapse of six years, however, again connects our territory with fishing occupations, and brings us to a proper starting point for a brief historical sketch of the fisheries of Gloucester.
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