USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Manchester > History of the town of Manchester, Essex County, Massachusetts, 1645-1895 > Part 7
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PS We Begg Leave to add as a Farther Plea, that we have been from the First, Zealous in the Common Cause, and have Vigorously exerted ourselves in endeavours to help in the Deliverance of our Dear Country. -
Aaron Lee A Committee of
Eleaser Craft The Town A
John Allen Junr fore Said.
Manchester April 12th 1779.
This petition was favorably received, the fine was remitted, and also "the sum of forty-five pounds, nineteen shillings and six pence for the travel and Attendance of their Representative more than was due from them on that account." 1
1 Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, vol. V, 1044,5.
CHAPTER VI. THE FISHERIES.
" Hurrah ! the seaward breezes Sweep down the bay amain ; Heave up, my lads, the anchor ! Run up the sail again ! * * * In the darkness as in daylight, On the water as on land, God's eye is looking on us, And beneath us is his hand ! Deatlı will find us soon or later, On the deck or in the cot, And we cannot meet him better Than in working out our lot." The Fisherman, Whittier.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FISHERIES.
PAYING BANKS - "TO WORSHIP GOD AND CATCH FISH" - HELPS AND HINDRANCES - SMALL SIZE OF FISHING CRAFT -OFF FOR LABRADOR - " BISKUITT" AND "BARBELS " -A "LOUEING HOUSEBEN " - MISSING - INDIAN MASSACRES- WANING DAYS - A SCHOOL OF PROWESS.
T HE Banks of Newfoundland had been visited long before the settlement of America. Fol- lowing the mysterious Basques, the successors of the Norsemen, came the Portuguese, the Span- iards and the English.1 One of the prominent ob- jects in view of the first comers from England to these shores was the "catching and curing " of fish, for which there was a good market in the West Indian and European ports .? The fishing business has continued to be one of the chief industries of Eastern Massachusetts to the present. Although
1 " It is well knowne, before our breache with Spaine, we usually sent out to New England yearely forty or fifty saile of ships of reasonable good burthen for fishing only." Planter's Plea, London, 1630.
2 Capt. John Smith names among " Staple-fish which is transported, from whence it is taken, many a thousand mile," Herring, Salt-fish, poore John, Sturgion, Mullit, Tunny, Purgos, Caraire, Buttargo. Morton adds (New English Canaan, c. vii), Codd, Basse, Hackarells, Salmon, Eeles, Smelts, Shadds, Turbut or Hallibut, Plaice, Hakes, Pilchers, Lobsters, Clames, Raser fish, Freeles, Coekles and Seallopes. Winthrop mentions among "grounds of settling a plantation in new England," "infinite varietie & store of fishes."
99
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Cape Anne was for a time abandoned as a fishing station, it soon took a prominent place in the fishing interest which it has held to the present day.
According to the latest statistical Bulletin of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, there are nearly 200,000 men directly engaged in the United States fisheries, with a total tonnage of 176,783 tons, and $58,000,000 cap- ital invested. The United States' annual harvest of the seas amounts to $45,000,000. We have 37,800 deep-sea fishermen, 17,000 of whom hail from Massachusetts. Gloucester alone has a fishing fleet of more than 400 ves- sels, of 30,000 tons burden, manned by 6,000 men.
In 1622, a royal proclamation gave to the Massa- chusetts Company the monopoly of "fishing and curing fish on the shores of New England."1 For a century or more, the fisheries were a large means of support to the seaboard, and indirectly to the whole colony. There were good seasons and poor seasons, there were frequent losses of vessels and men, the stormy seas engulfed many a wreck, and sung their hoarse requiem above the grave of many a gallant crew. But vessels were still fitted out and manned from almost every hamlet and creek, small boats were engaged in in-shore fishing, "flakes "? were loaded with cod, hake and pollock, and small schooners and brigs laden to the gunwale with the spoils of the sea were despatched from Salem and Boston to Virginia, the West Indies and Southern
1 So named in 1614, by the illustrions voyager, Capt. John Smith. It had before been called " North Virginia."
2 The first "fish-flakes" were probably on "Gale's Point," near the remains of the old wharf, and on the opposite shore, at " Glass Head," about where Dr. Bartol's house now stands. No date can be given for the erection of these " flakes," but in 1642 Jeffrey's Creek was represented to the General Court as " much engaged in the fishery."
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THE FISHERIES.
Europe, returning with freights of bacon, corn, salt, rum, sugar, molasses and coffee.
Our forefathers, we know, placed a high value upon fish as an article of food, assigning it a place, it has been said, next in order to their religious privileges.1 The present fondness for fish chowders in the vicinity would seem to be an inheritance from our ancestors ; and many would feel themselves guilty of an almost unpardonable disloyalty to their memory, if they discarded this time-honored diet.
The fishing industry was always encouraged by the General Court. In 1639 it was ordered that all vessels so employed with their stock and fish should not be taxed, and their men should be exempt from military duty. The great importance attached to the fisheries has been recognized emblematically in the " sacred cod " suspended in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the State House in Boston. A communication to a Boston paper during this current year, is of special interest in this connection.2
The business at last increased to such an extent and became such a source of revenue, that it aroused
1 Winslow says that when the delegates of the Dorchester Company called upon King James for a Charter, his Majesty asked, " Why do you wish to go to that far-off land ?" The answer was ready, "Sire, we desire to worship God and catch fish."
2 The codfish now in the hall of the House of Representatives was carved by John Welch, a prominent patriot and one of the signers of the famous remonstrance against the stamp act. It was done at the instance of Mr. John Rowe, another eminent patriot, who on Mar. 17, 1784, moved the general court that such an emblem ought to be exhibited as a memorial of the importance of the fisheries to the welfare of the Commonwealth and also with the object of replacing a former codfish which was hung up in the old State House (built in 1712 and burned in 1747), as a reminder of the greatest source of colonial prosperity in those days. HI. P. Arnold, in the Advertiser.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
the jealousy of the home government.1 As early as 1670, an English writer declared :
" New England is the most prejudicial plantation to this kingdom of all American plantations. His Majesty has none so apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor any so qualified for the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries, and in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous, than the increase of shipping in her colo- nies and plantations."
It is evident that there was a fear thus early - a fear which events proved to be well-grounded - that the fisheries would become a breeding ground of maritime supremacy if not of independence. Eng- land's restrictive policy manifested itself in an Act of Parliament in 1775, forbidding Americans from taking fish in Canadian waters; this act, with others intended to cripple the marine power of the colonies, did much to embitter the colonists and to hasten the Revolution.
Whatever may be thought of the justice or wis- dom of the policy of the mother country, no doubt her lawmakers were right in regarding the fisheries as a school of manliness and prowess, and a source of growing power on the seas. It has well been said of the fishermen of New England :
" During the whole period of our colonial vassalage, they were ever among the foremost to enter the ships and armies furnished by the colonies to aid England in her struggles with France; they were engaged in every strife in French
1 Speaking of the codfish, John Adams said, "They were to us what wool was to England and tobaeco to Virginia, the great staple which be- came the basis of power and wealth."
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THE FISHERIES.
America; they lie buried in every battle-ground in Canada and Nova Scotia, and their remains have been committed to every sea. In the Revolution, Salem and Beverly alone despatched fifty-two vessels as privateers, with seven hun- dred and fifty guns, and during the War they captured and destroyed British shipping to the amount of 200,000 tons." 1
Perhaps it is not too much to say that " It is more than doubtful whether we to-day would be a nation had not Colonel Glover with his Essex County fish- ermen twice saved Washington's army." 2 A high authority on the second war with England (1812) says : " I regard it as strictly true that without our fishermen we could hardly have manned a frigate or captured one. From the beginning of the war to its end, the fishermen were in almost every national or private armed ship that carried our flag." 3
Our fisheries proved a school for times of peace, too, as well as war. They trained a class of seamen and master mariners who made the name of Man- chester known all over the world.4 At one time the town is said to have had more captains in the
1 Hon. William Cogswell, M. C., in Boston Herald, Sept. 1, 1887.
2 The Fisherman, Gloucester, January, 1895. The reference is to the retreat from Long Island, and the crossing of the Delaware on the eve of the battle of Trenton. Irving, Life of Washington, ii, 316, 349. "Colonel Glover, with his amphibious regiment of Marblehead fishermen was in advance, the same who had navigated the army across the Sound," etc.
3 Quoted in article in Boston Herald, Sept. 1, 1887.
4 In 1810, there were fifty masters of merchant vessels who were citi- zens of Manchester. See Appendix L for a list furnished by Dea. John Price of ninety-one Manchester captains of vessels employed at one time and another in the foreign trade. The seamen of that day must have had brains and daring, for they had often scanty external helps in working their observations, or in laying their course. Even after 1800, a youth of nineteen sailed a ship from Calcutta to Boston with no chart whatever ex- cept a small map of the world in Guthrie's Geography. Hunt's American Merchant, vol. I, 136.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
merchant service than any other town in Essex County.
A shore like that of our eastern seaboard, which abounds in inlets or is fringed with islands, is almost sure to develop the spirit of maritime enterprise.1 The coastline of our own neighborhood, with its re- ceding coves and projecting headlands, naturally made the ocean the home and the field of labor and sus- tenance of many of the inhabitants. It shaped to a large extent the daily life. They were a sort of am- phibious race, as much at home on the water as on the land. The tilling of the soil and the reaping of the sea went on together; boats and seines found their place in the garden-plot and on the barnyard wall ; dried fish and potatoes were a common staple of food; the same hands that framed the humble dwellings and held the plough and swung the seythe, were skilled to reef the sail, to man the boats and to haul the lines. The life of the village was largely maritime. Few young men reached their majority, but had stood their watch on the slippery deck, or heard the midnight boom of the breakers on the spee- tral cliffs of La Bradore. Some of them were re- markable men.2
The vessels at first employed in the fishing ser- vice were of small size and often without decks. They were in some instances of less than twenty tons. In 1696, Samuel Allen had one of twelve tons ; Aaron Bennett one of nine tons ; William Hassam one of thirteen tons. The diminutive size
1 Features of Coasts and Oceans, Professor N. S. Shaler. The Earth and Man, Arnold Guyot, 244.
2 Jide Appendix K.
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THE FISHERIES.
of these vessels is less to be wondered at when we remember that the ships of the early voyagers to the New World were little more than ketches or shallops. Frobisher sailed in a vessel of twenty-five tons; Car- tier made his voyage of discovery (1534) in two vessels of sixty tons each ; two of the caravels of Columbus were without decks; it was in a bark of ten tons that Sir Humphrey Gilbert faced the stormy seas, to be lost on his home voyage ; the " Half- Moon," in which Hendrik Hudson discovered the river which bears his name, was a "fly-boat," or yacht, of eighty tons.
As late as the close of the last century, we are told, " the average tonnage of vessels engaged in the fisheries was but twenty tons, and they were ex- tremely uncomfortable ; the fire was made on a brick hearth on the floor directly beneath the com- panion way, up which the smoke was expected to pass, and the only way to and from the cabin was through the smoke and fire." The " Chebacco boats " were generally of from twelve to twenty tons, and valued at from $100 to $300. They were sharp at both ends, and had two masts but no bowsprit. These were called " pinkies." Later the pointed bow was shaved off and a bowsprit and jib were added, and the vessel, retaining its pink stern, was then called a " jigger."
In 1718, Capt. Andrew Robinson launched a ves- sel at Gloucester, whose rig was that which now be- longs to a schooner. The " Grand Bankers " were schooner-rigged, with square bows and high stern. They sailed well before the wind, but they were
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
awkward vessels to handle.1 They could hardly have competed with " Ailsa " and Valkyrie III, but they were safe sea-boats and of large carrying capacity for their water displacement ; they were built to ride the waves, rather than like a modern " clipper " or " ocean greyhound," to cut their way through them. They required skill for their management in a Sep- tember gale, when the jagged reefs showed their teeth on the lee bow.
It was in such vessels, presenting almost the greatest possible contrast to the beautiful, shapely, clipper-like craft launched to-day in the Essex ship- yards, that our forefathers sailed for " Georges," Meccatina, Red Island and Brador, the home of the murre and gannet, daring the unknown currents, the sunken reefs, the white squall and the frozen mist, when spring gales and autumn tempests lashed the sea into wild and terrific billows, that with wet hands they might light the hearth and spread the board at home.2
One of the famous vessels of the day was the schooner " Manchester," Allen, master, which was used in the Virginia trade. A model of this vessel was on exhibition at the Centennial Exposition, and is now in the possession of Mr. Geo. J. Marsh of the Cape Ann Savings Bank, Gloucester. She was of
1 The origin of the name has been thus explained: "Oh, how she scoons," said a bystander, as she slipped down the ways; " a schooner let her be," replied the builder. Harper's Magazine, September, 1875, p. 469.
2 " Wild are the waves which lash the reefs along St. George's bank - Cold on the shore of Labrador, the fog lies white and dank ;
Through storm, and wave, and blinding mist, stout are the hearts which man
The fishing-smacks of Marblehead, the sea-boats of Cape Ann."
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THE FISHERIES.
sixty-five tons, and was built in Duxbury, Mass., in 1784; she was afloat nearly a hundred years, having been in the port of Gloucester in 1878. There was another schooner "Manchester" built in Essex in 1845, of sixty-four tons; her first master was Ben- jamin Morgan.
A survivor 1 of the time when the fishing business was the business of the town thus narrates some in- cidents of his early experience.
" When thirteen years of age I was put into the busi- ness; two years later I sailed on the . Richmond,' Abram Stone, master, bound for the 'Straits.'" [There follows an account of several weeks' fishing on the coast of Labrador.] " September began with stormy weather. On the 15th we sailed for home, encountering the line gale off Cape Breton. The strong current rushing from the gulf raised a sharp and dangerous sea. At the height of the gale the wind would lull suddenly, the vessel falling into the trough of the sea, the waves breaking twenty feet above the deck. When the gale subsided, one boat with the davits had gone from the stern, and three boats stowed on deck were stove. Cape Ray was sighted, and stretching out to clear the land, the night being cloudy and dark, a timber-ship crashed upon us, striking abaft the main chains, knocking down the mainsail and knocking the captain overboard, who was saved by the sail hanging from the side. By running up the rigging, three of the crew boarded the ship before the vessels separated. The next day we were in tow for Miramichi. The schooner was cast off out- side the bar. We landed at a small village with a tavern, and walked down the river bank to join the schooner. Needed repairs being made, we were again on our passage. Beating around the eastern point of Prince Edward Island, the vessel struck on a reef. The tide was at ebb; as the tide went down, the decks went up, which looked much like
1 Dea. A. E. Low.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
the end of the voyage; but when the tide turned the wind changed with a strong breeze off the shore. Again afloat, we passed through the Straits of Canso with a fine leading breeze, under the foretopsail. Clearing the Straits we made sail and were six days to Cape Ann."
The following from an old record will give an idea of a fisherman's fare of the middle of the eigh- teenth century.
In an " agrement maid the Second Day of May anno Domi 1767, between Nath'l Allen Esq. of Gloucester and John Tuck Sen. of Manchester, Housewright," the party of the first part covenanted and promised to find for John Tuck, a "miner," for a fishing voyage. " Boots, Barbel,1 Hooker, Leads, Lines; sixty pound good Porke a faire, and three gallons Rum, three gallons Molasses, seven pounds Shugar, eighty four pounds of Biskuitt, twenty eight pounds Flower, one bushell of Indian Meele, six pounds of Butter, share of wood a faire, and small jenerail." 2
Josselyn gives the following list of " vtensils of the sea " -" quoils of rope and cable, rondes of twine, herring nets, seans, cod-lines and cod-hookes, mackrill-lines, drails, spiller hooks, mussel-hooks, barbels, splitting knives, basse-nettes, pues and gaffs, squid lines, yeele pots," etc.
The following letter, an exact transcript of the original in the possession of Benjamin Hilton Russell of Haverhill, a descendant of the writer, will serve as a sample of the epistolary style of the period. The autograph copy is written in a large, round hand on heavy paper, bearing the " Pine Tree " water- mark, and with ink which still retains its color.
St. Eustatia 3 Januery 18 Day 1770.
Kind and Louing Weif I embreass this optunety to Rit to you to Let you know of my halth and I hoop these few 1 Apron. 2 Stores.
3 St. Eustatius, one of the smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles.
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THE FISHERIES.
Lines will find you in as Good halth as tha Leue me in att this pressent tim thanks be to god for it we are all will on Bord and after a pessage of 22 Days we arifed Safe to the Island of Berbadous 1 and Landed our Cargo In Six Days time and then Set Sail for this pleas called St. Eustatia and our Captin tokes of meaking sail of the Shooner But wear2 he will or not I Can't tell But if he Dount Sill her we Shall Sail for St Meartins 3 and Lod with Salt and then meak the Beast of our weay houm and I am in hopes to Be atouem by the first of march if Nothing hapenes to us more than we know of but if he selles the Shooner I Dont know wear we Shall be atouem So Soun or No and So No more at preasent but I remain your Loueing houseben till Death pearts + Benjamin Hilton.
Remember my kind Loue to moneather and Brouthers and Sisters.
and So you must Excuse theas pouer Lines for I hant time to Rit as I would be glead to Rit to you this Coumes by wea of
Cape ann.
All along through the history of the fishing enterprise we have frequent records of men who were lost at sea ; in several instances whole crews disappeared at once, the vessels going down with all on board. It is a pathetic and harrowing tale. In the very first years of the settlement four men were drowned while fish- ing from a boat at Kettle Cove, and thus the record goes on. A few instances will here suffice. Ex uno disce omnes. In 1758, there went down in one vessel John Day. John Driver, Richard Leach, John Lee and Samuel Morgan. In 1756, Ambrose Allen,
1 Barbadoes. 2 Whether. 3 St. Martins.
4 Here is a cabalistic sign which cannot be represented in type.
5 A full list of those lost at sea, so far as it is possible now to recover the names, is given in Appendix L.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Moses Trask, Jacob Lee, Daniel Davidson, William Ireland, John Ayres, were lost coming from Lisbon. In 1764, Benjamin Andrews, Charles Leach and Daniel Foster were lost on the return voyage from the West Indies. In 1772, Capt. Daniel Edwards, Samuel Edwards, Benjamin Hill, Samuel Perry and Frank Silva were lost coming from the West Indies. In 1766, no less than ten were lost at sea. In Sep- tember, 1843, the schooner " Vesper," of about sixty tons, owned by Jacob Cheever and his two sons, was lost with the whole crew, Capt. John Cheever, Rufus Cheever, Hilliard Morse, David Hall, Nathaniel Morgan and Merritt Lennon, all but the captain married men and fathers.1 Nothing was ever known of their fate. When last spoken they had a full fare and were bound for home. " The waves closed over them, and no one could tell the story of their end." No complete record exists of the losses of the fishing fleet. But some idea may be had of the extent to which the town suffered in the loss of its bread-winners, from the fact that from 1745 to 1774, the sea had engulfed no less than ninety men of the inhabitants of this little town.2
Among the strange experiences of Manchester men was that on board the " Troubadour," Sept. 17, 1846, on the Banks, in a heavy sea, which washed overboard Samuel Carter and Thomas Dow, the next wave sweeping Mr. Dow back again on deck ; the old fisherman still living to ply his vocation as hale
1 Of those who were thus left widows, two, Mrs. Morse and Mrs. Lennon survive.
2 Entry by Rev. Benjamin Tappan in Church Records. This number includes those lost in coasting and foreign voyages.
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and hearty apparently as many a man who has not seen half his years or endured half his hardships.
The loss of two vessels, the "Blooming Youth " and " Senator," in May, 1840, on the reefs of Sable Island, is an event still remembered and talked of by the older inhabitants. The site of the disaster is a well known grave of vessels off the Nova Scotia coast. " The whole region for miles around is a trap and a snare. . . . Between the years 1806 and 1827, forty vessels, and it is supposed many men, were lost." The men of the "Blooming Youth " succeeded in getting ashore in the surf, and saved most of their stores, but the vessel was a total loss. The last survivor, Mr. Allen Lee, is living in town at the age of eighty-two years. Mr. Lee was born May 1, 1813, and at the age of seventeen began his seafaring life in a voyage to South America. He followed the sea for seven years until his marriage in 1837, and often went on fishing voyages after- ward. His life brought him into contact with Spaniards, slaves and pirates of whom he has many interesting and thrilling incidents to narrate.
The " Blooming Youth " was built in Essex and vas a vessel of about seventy tons. She was owned by Capt. Israel D. Goodridge, Dean Babcock and Benjamin Morse. She had also as crew, Mr. Lee, and a boy, Benjamin Bennett. After they escaped to land, they were kindly cared for by the " chief man of the island," called " Governor " Derby, an old English naval officer. They remained on the island twenty-four days, when they obtained passage
1 Harper's Magazine, December, 1866.
(See p. 105.)
CHEBACCO BOAT.
GRAND BANKER.
JIGGER.
FOSTER'S WHARF.
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THE FISHERIES.
to Halifax, and were sent by the British consul to Boston. The crew of the "Senator," Capt. James Pert, were taken off by Cape Cod fishermen, and the vessel bought by them for a song. She was new and staunch, and may be afloat still.
Nor were the hidden rocks and angry waves the only enemies encountered. In addition to "perils of waters," were "perils of the heathen." In August, 1747, as tradition runs, a schooner's crew from Manchester landed on the coast of Maine near Sheepscot, to procure wood and water, when they were captured by Indians, and as afterward proved all but one massacred.1 The survivor, a lad of twelve, named Aaron Lee, was held in captivity three years, until finding an opportunity to escape, he made his way home after incredible hardships, and appeared to his grief-stricken parents who had long mourned his cruel death, as one raised from the dead.2 Mr. Lee lived to old age, and was for many years Town Clerk. The records show him to have been an excellent penman.
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