USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Gloucester > The fisheries of Gloucester : from the first catch by the English in 1623, to the centennial year, 1876 > Part 2
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By an act of the General Court, passed May 22, 1639, it was or- dered that a fishing plantation should be begun at Cape Ann, with certain privileges and exemptions, for the encouragement of Mr. Maurice Thomson, merchant of London, and others, to promote the fishing trade. To what extent Mr. Thomson availed himself of the encouragement here offered, no one now can tell, and if it were not that the Gloucester Records contain one single reference to the " parcell of land where Mr. Tomson's frame stood," there would ex- ist nothing to show that he ever even commenced the enterprise. This " frame" stood, it is supposed, on what was afterwards called Duncan's Point, so named from Peter Duncan, a merchant, who owned the place and carried on a small trade there about 1662. It is worthy of note that a steamer now leaves this very spot daily, laden with the products of the Gloucester fisheries to be distributed
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Established 1849.
JOHN PEW & SON,
Producers of and Wholesale Dealers in
FISH,
And Importers of
SALT,
83 Spring Street, Gloucester, Mass.
JOHN PEW.
CHAS. H. PEW.
JOHN J. PEW.
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all over this vast country. It seems probable that Mr. Thomson, or some one else, did something more than ereet a frame about the time the act was passed for his encouragement, for a writer of that period who was in the country in 1639, mentions Cape Ann as a place " where fishing is set forward, and some stages builded ;" and anoth- er early writer calls "Cape Ann a place of fishing ; being peopled with fishermen till the Reverend Mr. Richard Blindman came." Of the company who came with him, and of other settlers who came about the same time, it does not appear that any engaged in the fish- ing business. It is certain that nearly if not all of them sought the most favorable spots for agriculture they could find, though it is quite probable that a few, who were located around the harbor, may have engaged to a very limited extent in shore fishing in small boats. In a case of litigation, in 1651, about a piece of a net, mention is made of " the bote and voyg ;" and about that time there appears to have been a fishing stage at Annisquam. A few years later Peter Duncan carried on a small trade at the Point, in the Harbor, where it is sup- posed that Mr. Thomson ereeted a building or a frame for the pur- poses of his fishery in 1639, and, in company with others, owned a shallop. One man, in 1663, agreed to pay a debt of fifty pounds in " good merchantable fish and mackerel," and at this time we find "fish and maekerel" among the articles in which the salary of the minister was to be paid ; but not till many years after the settlement of the town can any evidence be found that a vessel of sufficient size to resort to distant fishing banks was owned in it. In two instances, in 1680, a sloop is found as part of the property of deceased settlers, and, in 1693, a tax-list on record at the State House in Boston, shows that all the personal estate of this description, then held by the people of Gloucester, was composed of six sloops, a shallop and a boat ; and one or more of these, there is reason to suppose, was employed in wood-coasting. In 1695 the sons of Jeffrey Parsons had a fishing stage at Fisherman's Field, and one of them, who died in 1714, had one third of a fishing vessel, one half a shallop, and one half of an open sloop, all valued at £54; and another, who died in 1722, had three "scooners," part of two sloops, and shop goods and stores for fishing. At the last named date this business seems to have become firmly established in the town, though to what extent it was pursued can be a matter of conjecture only ; but it seems quite certain that persons were engaged in it at the Harbor and at Annisquam,-at the latter plaec more extensively, perhaps, than at the former, for one merchant, whose vessels sailed from 'Squam River, died in 1734, leav-
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Jas. G. Tarr & Bro., WHOLESALE DEALERS IN
DRY AND PICKLED
Fish
MACKEREL AND
HERRING.
Prime SMOKED HALIBUT,
OF OUR OWN CURING, A SPECIALTY.
All orders from any part of the country promptly attended to at the lowest market price the day the order is received.
SEND FOR PRICE LIST.
We fit out sixteen vessels and therefore obtain our fish from first hands.
P. S. The accompanying cut represents our fitting-out and curing establishment at GLOUCESTER, MASS.
JAMES G. TABR. DAVID TARR.
SHUTE & MERCHANT,
CURERS OF AND DEALERS IN
Smoked RI
HA
DRY and PICKLED FISH,
-ALSO,-
BONELESS and PREPARED FISH. GLOUCESTER, MASS.
.
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ing six schooners, a wharf and fishing-room at Canso, and a large amount of other property.
A more extensive maritime business in another branch had, how- ever, been commenced in the carly part of the eighteenth century. A portion of the wood land of the Cape was then divided and many vessels were built in the town and used in the transportation of this article to Boston. There seems to be good ground for believing that as many as fifty sloops must have been engaged in it at one time ; but it was a trade that must necessarily be of short duration, and finally other employments for the vessels must be sought. Fishing was, of course, the only resource, and we find, before 1720, several sloops engaged in the distant fisheries. As early as 1711 certainly our fishermen began to resort to Cape Sable, and in 1716 mention is made of a "scooner" employed in fishing there :- the same one per- haps, the first of her class, that was built and owned by Capt. An- drew Robinson, a noted fishing captain who invented the rig of that class of vessels. This man is said to have been so industrious on the banks, when fish were plenty, that he would not leave his place on deck even to eat ; but when he was hungry he had a ship-biscuit brought to him which he contrived to cat by working it round in his mouth with his teeth and lips, while his hands were attending to the hook and line. During these first years of the fishery the men were greatly annoyed by the French and Indians, and some were kill- ed ; but the business was rendered most discouraging by the havoc of shipwreck. The year 1716 is a year memorable in the annals of the town for the first sad and sweeping calamity of the kind, which has so often since shrouded it in mourning. On this mournful occa- sion, five vessels, comprising, upon a reasonable supposition, not less than one-tenth part of all the tonnage of the town, were wholly lost in that year on a fishing voyage to Cape Sable ; and about twenty men, a fifteenth part, probably, of all the male citizens of the place, perished by the catastrophe.
The history of the Gloucester fishery from this time to the Revo- lutionary War may be briefly related. The vessels with which the business was first carried on were the sloops built in the town. A few schooners were added about 1720, and probably soon became the favorite class of vessels for this business. Many of them were of the burthen of fifty tons or more, and were therefore suitable for voyages to the Grand Bank and other distant fishing grounds, and for employment in coastwise and foreign voyages in the winter sea- son. They were of a peculiar model, which prevailed about a hun-
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SEWALL, DAY & CO.,
Manufacturers of
Cordage & Oakum.
SPECIAL ATTENTION GIVEN TO
FISHERMEN'S OUTFITS, CABLES, Net Rope, Trawl Lines, &c. &c. GANGS OF RIGGING made to order at Short Notice. 83 & 85 Commercial Street, BOSTON.
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dred years. The following is an exact representation of the model and rig of the "old banker," one of which appears in the tank at the Gloucester department of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia.
MODEL OF GRAND BANKER OF 1741.
About seventy of these schooners were owned in Gloucester in 1741, and nearly all of them were probably engaged in the Grand Bank fishery. In the fishing voyages, it was the custom for the men to go, as it was called, "on their own hook :" that is, an account was kept of the fish caught by each man; and, at the end of the voyage, the proceeds were distributed accordingly. The reason for such a practice is sufficiently apparent in the account of a seasons' work by one crew on the Grand Bank in 1757. In that year, the Sch'r "Abigail," Capt. Paul Hughes, made three trips in about six months, and fished, in all, sixty-seven days, with the following result as to the number of codfish caught by each one of her crew of six men : Paul Hughes, 6643 ; B. Foster, 5000; Job Galloway, 4244 ; Nathaniel Day, 3929 ; Rufus Stacy, 3784 ; William Smith, 3435.
Notwithstanding the discouragements of the twenty years immedi- ately preceding the reduction of Canada, growing out of the wars of that period, and occasional losses by shipwreck, there was no abate- ment of the energy with which the people of the town pursued the fishery. During that time it became the basis of a considerable for- eign trade which was not only profitable to the merchants, but bene- ficial to the fishermen in giving them winter employment. In the latter years of the period now under consideration, we find Glouces- ter vessels making voyages to Cadiz, Bilbao, Lisbon, and different
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SMITH & BURNHAM,
WHOLESALE DEALERS IN
DRY, PICKLED
AND
SMOKED FISH,
Jos. Friend's Wharf, GLOUCESTER, MASS,
H. C. SMITH, E. K. BURNHAM, ? no Especial attention given to putting up Boneless Cod, Tongues and Sounds, Mackerel, &c.
F. W. HOMANS, WHOLESALE
Dealer, Shipper &
Exporter of Fish,
ALSO IMPORTER OF AND WHOLESALE DEALER IN
MOLASSES AND TEAS,
GILBERT'S WHARF, - GLOUCESTER, MASS.
REAR OF CITY LANDING.
D. C. & H. BABSON,
Receivers and Wholesale Dealers in
DRY and PICKLED
FISH
Fish Oils and Fishing Outfits,
ORDERS SOLICITED AND } PROMPTLY FILLED.
Gloucester, Mass.
M. C. HERRICK, Wholesale Dealer in
FRESH AND PICKLED FISHI,
AND OILS.
Wharf at ROCKY NECK. P. O. Address,
East Gloucester, Mass.
HENRY W. MEARS,
Manufacturer of Best Quality ntes,
TRAWL LINES,
GANGING, &c.,
ESSEX, MASS. Orders by mail will receive prompt attention.
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ports in the West Indies ; besides which it had also become common for them to make trading voyages in the Winter season to Virginia.
The peace of 1763 secured to our people unmolested use of the fishing grounds, and, from this time to the Revolution, they carried on the business with energy and success ; though one of those terri- ble misfortunes that shocks a whole community, and brings unutter- able sorrow to many private bosoms, occurred in the meantime and cast its sad gloom over the town. In March, 1766, nineteen vessels sailed for the Grand Bank, and, while on the passage thither, were met by a violent storm, which wrecked and scattered the fleet, and sent many to the bottom. Two were cast away at Nova Scotia ; seven foundered at sea, with all on board ; and several of the others were so much disabled that they were obliged to return. The num- ber of men lost by these shipwrecks is not known, but it was not probably less than forty.
We know but little of the relative importance of the Bank and shore fisheries at this time ; but it seems that the latter were almost wholly confined to Sandy Bay and the coves on the outside of the Cape, while the chief seat of the former was at the Harbor. From such information as can be obtained, it appears that from 1770 to 1775, between seventy and eighty schooners, of an average value of one thousand dollars, resorted yearly to the Grand Bank for cod ; and about seventy boats fished for cod and hake and pollock on the ledges near our own coast. The business yielded a scanty support to the fishermen, and, as a class, they were poor ; though then, as in more recent times, some who began at the hook and line rose to be the most prominent and successful among the merchants who carried it on. No means exist for ascertaining the average annual earnings of the fishermen ; but the accounts of a single schooner for 1773 are preserved, and show the product of her two trips to the Banks to have been 550 1-2 quintals of fish, which sold for £302.9s., or a lit- tle more than one thousand dollars in silver money. Supposing the number of the crew to have been six, and deducting the expenses and the vessel's part, and the bill for necessary supplies to the fami- ly of the poor fisherman while absent, it will be seen that there could have remained little or no surplus of his season's work, and that want must soon have compelled him to hurry away again once more upon the waters, as a sailor in the foreign or coastwise trade of the town.
Such is a brief historical sketch of the Gloucester fisheries down to the beginning of the Revolutionary war, at which time the town
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#. & C. W. LORD,
MANUFACTURERS OF
NETS, SEINES and TWINE, No. 111 COMMERCIAL STREET, BOSTON.
FISH NETTINGS TWINES &C.
ROMANUFACTURERSOF SEINEST
SEINES,
NETS
TWINE
H.&G.W.LORD
rrrrrrrr
FISHERMEN AND OUTFITTERS.
MACKEREL SEINE NETTING made from Hadley Twine.
We keep in our stock but one grade of POGIE SEINE TWINE and NET- TING, and that the very best manufactured in the country, without regard to cost.
PURSE MACKEREL SEINES, fitted complete, ready for the water, of best material, at moderate cost.
POUNDS, WEIRS, TRAPS, SHORE and MINNOW SEINES and NETS. LINEN GILL NETS made from Knox Linen Twine.
Patent and Seine Twine, Maitre Cord, Hemp and steam-tarred Ma- nilla Seine Rope, Russia Purse Line, Spooner's Whale Line, Oak and Cedar Buoys, Seine Rings, Leads, &c., &c.,
IN LARGE STOCK, AND FOR SALE AT LOWEST PRICES BY
H. & G. W. LORD,
111 Commercial St., BOSTON.
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had risen to be the second in New England in this important busi- ness, in which Marblehead took the lead, and was but slightly in ad- vance of our own town. To sum it up in a few words it may be stated that in the fisheries of the town there were then engaged at least one hundred and fifty schooners and boats, aggregating four thousand eight hundred tons, and employing six hundred men. The yearly product of dried fish may be estimated at about forty-eight thousand quintals, the value of which did not vary much either way from one hundred thousand dollars.
During the Revolutionary War the fishing schooners could not be employed for the business in which they had been previously engag- ed. Several were converted into privateers, a few rotted at the wharves, and some were preserved till peace again made it safe to engage in the Grand Bank fishery. A few small boats fished along the shores, but their product was of inconsiderable amount, and small as it was, probably exceeded the limited demand for home consump- tion. The boats used in this shore fishery were called Chebacco
MODEL OF CHEBACCO BOAT.
boats, from the name of the place where they were built-a part of Ipswich, now the town of Essex. The name has a striking similari- ty to that of a small vessel mentioned in the French marine diction- aries-the chabek; but there is no doubt that our Chebacco boats derived their appellation as here stated ; and it is quite probable that in rig and model they were peculiar to Cape Ann and were first used in its waters. Like the "old Bankers," they have now entirely dis- appeared.
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FISHERIES.
Factories of the
American Net & Twine Co.
ALL KINDS OF
Nets, Seines, Lines and Twines, Suited to the Fisheries of the Continent, manufactured by the
AMERICAN NET & TWINE CO.,
43 Commercial Street, - - BOSTON, MASS.
GRIFFIN £ BROS.,
EASTPORT, MAINE, Commission Merchants,
AND DEALERS IN
FISH, FISH OILS & FISH GUANO,
AND CURERS OF THE WORLD RENOWNED
" FINNAN HADDIES " and YARMOUTH BLOATERS. ALSO, Manufacturers of the Original Cape Ann Oil Clothing.
EASTPORT, MAINE.
Factories at CAMPOBELLO, N. B.
FAMCKECANIE.SO 4
CITY OF GLOUCESTER, 1876.
CHAPTER 3.
DECLINE OF THE BANK FISHERY-FISHING COMPANY-RESUMPTION OF BANK TRIPS-SHORE FISHERY-MACKEREL FISHERY, ETC.
On the resumption of the Bank fishery, after the war, it appears from one statement that sixty vessels resorted thither from Glouces- ter ; but the merchants of the town soon found a more profitable employment in foreign commerce, and this branch of the fishery rap- idly declined till 1804, when we find that the whole number of ves- sels over thirty tons engaged in the fisheries of the town was only eight ; and this falling-off in the particular branch here mentioned is fully explained by the fact, that all the traditions of the business re- port that the average earnings of the Bank fishermen were so small, that they were kept in a condition of poverty. Seeing this deca- dence, and stimulated in some degree perhaps by encouragement from the general government, in the way of bounty, a few public- spirited citizens attempted to put new vigor into the business by the organization of a fishing company with an authorized capital of fifty thousand dollars. This company began operations in 1819, by fit- ting out seven schooners, but it soon found that a business which private capital avoided could hardly be expected to yield profit, even to the best corporation management ; and, at the end of the third year, the enterprise came to an end, with a loss of a considerable portion of the capital invested in it,-a result which seemed to ex. tinguish all hope of prosperity from the pursuit of this branch of industry. In 1820 the U. S. Census showed that the population of the town had increased but twenty per cent. in thirty years, and, with the total extinction of its Grand Bank fishery, few entertained
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B. GRIFFIN & SON, Wholesale Dealers in
FISH BOXES OIL CLOTHING,
OF ALL KINDS, IN SHOOK OR MADE UP.
Large Quantities constantly on hand. 42 Front Street,
GLOUCESTER, MASS.
JOSEPH PARSONS, Manufacturer of
AND
Fishermen's Furnishing Goods, Water St., East Gloucester.
OIL CLOTHING at Wholesale and Retail. Orders from all parts of the Country promptly attended to.
Gloucester Fire Insurance Co. GLOUCESTER, MASS. ASSETS, $186,400. JOHN CUNNINGHAM, Sec'y. JOSIAH 0. FRIEND, Prest.
DIRECTORS.
GEO. R. BRADFORD,
HENRY A. BURNHAM, JOSIAH O. FRIEND,
JOSEPH O. PROCTER,
GEORGE J. TARR,
JOSEPH GARLAND.
CHARLES S. ROGERS.
D. E. WOODBURY,
Commission - IN -
Merchant,
DRY & PICKLED FISH, FISH OILS, SALT, &C., GLOUCESTER, MASS.
ALEX. MCCURDY, On Georges in a Storm !
SHIP-SMITH,
And Manufacturer of
Fishermen's Knives, AND
BAIT MILLS,
Which we make a specialty. Orders from all parts of the country promptly attended to.
EAST GLOUCESTER, MASS.
THIS BEAUTIFUL PAINTING
Has been Photographed, and copies may be obtained of Procter Brothers. It is a fine picture, showing two schooners riding at anchor and another jogging under a dou- ble-reefed foresail. Just such a picture as everybody wants.
Copyright secured according to law. Send 75 cents to
PROCTER BROS., Gloucester, Mass.,
and receive by return mail one of the above pictures.
WILLIAM A. PEW, ROBERT FEARS, ANDREW W. DODD,
MICHAEL WALEN,
JAMES A. STETSON,
MONSON L. WETHERELL,
BENNETT GRIFFIN,
FRED. G. WONSON,
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a belief that it would ever again recover the ratio of ante-revolution- ary growth. For a period of more than thirty years this fishery ceased to be of any account in the business of the town, but, since about 1860, the increased demand and consequent higher price of fish have induced many of its merchants to send their vessels to the ancient fishing ground which contributed so largely to the early pros- perity of Gloucester, and which, in recent years, has been one of the chief sources of that increase in business by which it has risen to its . present importance. The success with which this fishery is now pur- sued is doubtless due in a considerable degree to the practice of trawl-fishing. From the earliest times, till within a few years past, it was the custom of the New England fishermen, who resorted to that Bank, to fish from the vessel only ; but they now use the French
MODEL OF TRAWLER OF 1876.
mode of fishing with trawls, which are lines, sometimes several hun- dred feet in length, with short lines and baited hooks suspended from them at frequent intervals. They are often set a long distance from the vessel, and as this work must be done and the trawls tended in dories, as their small boats are called, it is sometimes very hazard- ous, and, unhappily, liable to fatal accidents.
During the first quarter of the present century, when, as we have seen, the Grand Bank fishery was almost totally abandoned by the Gloucester fishermen, the shore fishery continued to give employment
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CUNNINGHAM & THOMPSON, (Successors to POOL & CUNNINGHAM,)
Producers &
Shippers of
Dry and Pickled Sish, At the Old Fort Wharf, GLOUCESTER, MASS.
WM. B. COOMBS, Fish Buyer & Shipper
McQUINN'S WHARF, EAST GLOUCESTER.
HIGHEST CASH MARKET PRICES PAID.
Extra inducements offered to Nova Scotia vessels coming to the port of Gloucester for a market. All trips settled for as soon as the fish are weighed off.
DENNIS & COLBY,
Sail Maker
BURNHAM'S LOFT,
Near Union Hill,
Gloucester, Mass.
All orders will receive our personal atten- tion and satisfaction guaranteed.
Repairing promptly attended to.
J. F. WONSON & CO.,
WHOLESALE FISH DEALERS, EAST GLOUCESTER, MASS.
JOHN F. WONSON, FREDERIC G. WONSON,
ROGER W. WONSON, FRANKLIN A. WONSON.
WM. P. ELLERY, HOUSE, SHIP & SIGN PAINTER,
AND DEALER IN
Paints, Oils, Varnish, Japan, VERDIGRIS, And COPPER PAINT.
Orders for Vessel or House Painting prompt- ly attended to.
Opp. Burnham Bros.' 3 Railway Office. .
Gloucester, Mass.
F. M. LORING & Co. DEALERS IN
STOVES, ALSO IN Lanterns, Fog Horns, Tin, Sheet Iron, Copper and Britannia Ware
For vessels use. Vessel Work a specialty and attended to with promptness. All or- ders will receive personal attention.
146 Front St., Gloucester, Mass.
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to a considerable number of the people. At the commencement of this period about two hundred Chebacco boats, measuring nearly three thousand tons, and employing about six hundred men, were engaged in it. These boats resorted to the ledges and shoal grounds near the coast, where they found at different seasons, cod, hake and pollock. This boat-fishing was chiefly carried on at Sandy Bay, Annisquam, and the other coves on the outside of the Cape, but the - advantage of a good harbor for their large boats drew a few of the - people away from these localities, to settle at the Harbor, soon after
- 1800. An increase in the size of the boats soon took place, and by - the end of the period now under consideration several pink-stern
MODEL OF "PINKEY " OF 1810.
- schooners, or jiggers, as they were sometimes called, were employed - in the business. This shore fishery for cod probably reached its maximum in 1832, when the amount of tonnage engaged in it was 6463 tons, the number of men employed 799, and the product of fish 63,112 quintals, valued at $157,780; to which must be added the bounty of $25,172, received from the general government. But another fishery had now for a few years attracted the attention of the fishermen ; and the shore-fishing for cod, except that carried on in winter, declined from this time, till it came to be, as at the present day, of insignificant account in the business of the town.
Of the early history of the mackerel fishery in New England, as well as that for cod, very little is known. Gov. Winthrop, standing " to and again " within sight of Cape Ann, all of one day in June,
35
T. L. MAYO & CO., Ship Chandlers & Grocers, DEALERS IN MANILA AND HEMP CORDAGE, Duck, Chains, Anchors, Paints, Oils, Varnishes, &c. T. L. MAYO,
RICHARD A. ATWOOD, No. 107 Commercial St., BOSTON.
Agents for TARR & WONSON'S PATENT METALLIC OR COPPER PAINT.
FEARING, RODMAN & SWIFT, SELLING AGENTS OF
Lawrence Duck Company, Old Colony Duck Company, New Bedford Cordage Company, AND PROPRIETORS OF
STANDARD CHAIN WORKS, 23 & 25 Commercial St., BOSTON. HENRY L. FEARING. FRANCIS RODMAN. WM. C. SWIFT.
WEST, PARKMAN & SON, HARDWARE GOODS,
-AND-
FISHERMEN'S FITTINGS.
JOSEPH WEST,
WILLIAM PARKMAN, No. 5 Dock Square, BOSTON.
WILLIAM PARKMAN, JR. >
Constantly on hand Fish Hooks, Twines and Lines.
EATON, HARRINGTON & DANA, HARDWARE, CORDAGE
FISHERMEN'S OUTFITS.
N. E. AGENTS FOR Mallory, Wheeler & Co. American Screw Co. Gaylord Mfg. Co. Judd Mfg. Co. Nos. 28 and 30 PEARL STREET, JOSEPH B. EATON, } OTIS D. DANA. BOSTON.
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1630, " took many mackerels"; and three years later a man was lost from a passenger ship, by drowning, as he was casting forth a line in trying to catch some. As early as 1653 a coastwise trade in this fish had commenced, and in later years it seems certain that some were shipped to foreign ports ; for we find that, in 1692, the remon- strants against an order passed by the General Court that no person should haul ashore any mackerel with any sort of nets or seines whatsoever, and that no person should catch any, except for use while fresh, before the first of July annually, in refutation of the as- sertion that mackerel will not "save well" in May and June, state that they have shipped mackerel caught in those months beyond sea, and add that they kept as well as those caught in other months. There can scarcely be a doubt, therefore, that this fish was to some extent an article of trade among the carly colonists ; and we know that, before the Revolutionary war, several vessels were employed in this fishery from the harbors on the south side of Massachusetts Bay ; but Gloucester fishermen do not seem to have given much attention to it till about 1821, for in the thirteen years immediately preceding that date we find that, according to the inspection returns, the whole number packed here was only 1171 barrels. From this time, how- ever, the business rapidly increased ; the fish became so abundant in our waters that, in 1825, a single jigger, carrying eight men, took over 1300 barrels, and in 1831 the whole catch of the town rose to 69,759 barrels ; but after the last named date mackerel began to be scarce on our own coast, and the catch declined so rapidly that, in 1840, it amounted to only 8870 barrels ; and in that and the four following years the total aggregate taken by Gloucester fishermen amounted to no more than 66,547 barrels. About this time the en- terprise of the fishermen led them to pursue the mackerel into their distant retreats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and for several years nearly all the vessels of the town engaged in this fishery resorted to that region, and it became the chief source from which the demand for the fish could be supplied. With success widely varying from year to year the mackerel fishery has continued to be pursued to the present time. Late in the Spring months the fishermen start to meet the " schools" when they make their first appearance in the waters south of New England, from which they follow them to our own coast and into the seas of British America ; but it is a precarious fishery and it is agreed that a good deal depends upon luck ; for there is often a wide difference in the result of the season's work of men equally diligent and equally skilled in the business. Of late it
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