Nooks and Corners of the New England CoastDrake, Samuel Adams
History
Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast
Drake, Samuel Adams
New England -- Description and travel
To quote from Douglass, he says: "In 1746 Marblehead ships off more
dried cod than all the rest of New England besides. Anno 1732 a good
fish year, and in profound peace, Marblehead had about one hundred and
twenty schooners of about fifty tons burden, seven men aboard, and one
man ashore to make the fish, or about one thousand men employed, besides
the seamen who carry the fish to market. Two hundred quintals considered
a fare. In 1747 they have not exceeding seventy schooners, and make five
fares yearly to I. Sables, St. George's Banks, etc."
M. Rochefoucauld Liancourt, who visited New England in 1799, making a
tour of the coast as far as the Penobscot, says at that time the vessels
were usually of seventy tons, and had a master, seven seamen, and a boy.
The owner had a quarter, the dryer on the coast an eighth, and the rest
was shared by the master and seamen, in proportion to the fish they had
taken. Every man took care of his own fish.
As early as 1631 Governor Matthew Cradock established a fishing station
at Marblehead, in charge of Isaac Allerton, whose name appears fifth on
the celebrated compact of the Pilgrims, signed at Cape Cod, November
11th, 1620.[154] Winthrop mentions in his journal that as the _Arabella_
was standing in for Naumkeag, on the 12th of June, 1630, Mr. Allerton
boarded her in a shallop as he was sailing to Pemaquid. Moses Maverick
lived at Marblehead with Allerton, and married his daughter Sarah. In
1635 Allerton conveyed to his son-in-law all the houses, buildings, and
stages he had at Marblehead. In 1638 Moses was licensed to sell a tun of
wine a year.
In Winthrop's "Journal," under the date of 1633, is the following with
reference to this plantation:[155]
"_February_ 1.--Mr. Cradock's house at Marblehead was burnt down about
midnight before, there being then in it Mr. Allerton, and many fishermen
whom he employed that season, who all were preserved by a special
providence of God, with most of his goods therein, by a tailor, who sat
up that night at work in the house, and, hearing a noise, looked out and
saw the house on fire above the oven in the thatch."[156]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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