“In 1803 the foreign trade of Plymouth was at the height of its prosperity. In that year it was carried on by seventeen ships, sixteen brigs and forty schooners, and the duties paid into the Plymouth Custom House amounted to nearly one hundred thousand dollars.”[20] The embargo act of 1807 and the war of 1812 brought this activity to a permanent decline. Of the captains commanding such vessels, Davis mentions some with the name of Burgess: Chandler, John, Lewis, William W. and Winslow. Cod fishery was active and successful.[21] From 1765 to 1775 an average of 65 vessels per year were employed. In 1802 there were 37 vessels engaged, employing 265 men, landing 26,175 quintals (hundred weight) of codfish. All but six of these vessels made two trips yearly. Among the skippers he lists there is Nathaniel Clark, possibly a one time owner of the homestead. He was of the _Benjamin Church_ of 70 tons which produced 350 quintals of codfish. All those of us who love to eat lobster and regret their present and future scarcity and high cost will enjoy this account telling of Sam and Joseph Burgess:[22] “In the angle where the T joined the main wharf, there was a flight of substantial steps, where boats at all times could land, drawing not over two feet of water. This was a great convenience, enabling Sam Burgess, with his fish for the market, lobster boats from the Gurnet, and the Island and Saquish boats, to land without regard to the stage of the tide. Many a householder with his mouth made up for a fish dinner has sat by the hour together at the head of those steps, waiting for Sam. In those days, too, the purveyor of lobsters was Joseph Burgess, the keeper of the light, and as regular as the day he would appear with his lobsters and wearing his red thrum cap, would wheel his barrow full about the town. There was no talk then of short lobsters, nor of extravagant prices, for nine pence, or twelve and a half cents in the currency of the time, would buy a three or four pound lobster.” During his lifetime, of thirteen packets in service Davis remembers the last eight very well.[23] These ships carried merchandise and some passengers on runs to Boston, using sail. The last packet with passenger service was the schooner _Russell_. She survived the advent of the railroad in 1845. Her fate was a sad one. On March 17, 1854, on a return from Boston, she drifted off course and went ashore at Billingsgate Light on Cape Cod, southeast from the Gurnet. The schooner was a total wreck and all on board were lost. She had a captain and three crew members and five passengers. The bodies came ashore at Wellfleet and Truro. Davis, as administrator of Capt. Simmons’ estate, had to identify them and arrange for their removal to Plymouth.